Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and a delegation of more than 40 people started a trade mission to China with a 190 mph train ride from the Shanghai airport to a sleek station in the city.
The trip not only got the group into the city but gave a glimpse of what some hope will be a future of mass transit in and out of Atlanta.
Proposals or talk of funding for a maglev -- short for magnetic levitation -- line running 120 miles between Atlanta and Chattanooga have bounced around since 1998, when Atlanta sought federal funding. Today, the plans and funding for either conventional rail or maglev between the two cities are far from complete. Critics call the idea fanciful.
Reed said the high-speed trip from Shanghai on Saturday would enable the Atlanta delegation to "take home solutions for the challenges Atlanta faces in the transportation sector."
The delegation is spending the week in China, with plans to touch on a wide range of issues, from seeing first-hand how China has expanded rail transportation to drawing Chinese businesses to Atlanta.
The Atlanta businesspeople have met with in-country experts, including Shanghai-based executives from Home Depot, who hosted a luncheon and discussed strategies for breaking into the Chinese market.
The delegation comes from a range of industries, including human resources, law and tourism. Michael R. Thomas, founder of a financial company called Thomas USAF, said he hopes to set up a regional center for EB-5 visas, allocated to foreigners who create jobs by investing in the United States.
Atlanta City Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms said her top priority is attracting Chinese businesses to her southwest Atlanta district.
"I think it's going to be a good opportunity to talk about physical relocations," she said. "If it doesn't happen on this trip, hopefully it will happen in the future."
The trip started on a hectic pace. Sarah Hawk, an Atlanta immigration attorney with law firm Ogletree Deakins, said she arrived in Shanghai after about 20 hours of travel time. That included a transfer in Seoul, six movies and about one hour of sleep.
"When you look at the schedule we have, there is no question that this trip is all about business," Reed said Friday.
The maglev idea has never caught on in the United States.
"Maglev is expensive and energy intensive," said Randal O'Toole, a rail analyst at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, who said some estimates indicate that maglev requires three times as much energy as a comparable two-rail train. The 19-mile Shanghai line cost $1.2 billion to build, or roughly $63 million a mile, according to news reports.
Georgia's Department of Transportation has submitted a draft environmental impact statement for the Atlanta-to-Chattanooga line to federal highway and railroad officials. If the federal government approves this summer, GDOT could begin a second, more detailed phase of the environmental work, including selection of the final route and technology, said GDOT spokesman David Spear.
A decision about which technology to pursue -- maglev or conventional rail -- has not yet been made. The costs for maglev could run 10-15 percent higher than conventional rail, according to some estimates, but maglev could last longer because of the lack of moving parts.
Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield supports the idea, said spokesman Richard Beeland.
"He knows this is going to be a while off," said Beeland. "But this is something we have to pursue."
Joe Ferguson, who works on the rail project for The Enterprise Center in Chattanooga, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has told city officials that he supports the project and would like a rail line to eventually extend from Atlanta to Nashville, Louisville and Chicago.
Before the trade mission, Atlanta City councilman H. Lamar Willis said he planned to focus on Chinese rail systems for lessons on how Atlanta can move people and cargo more efficiently.
"China has done a phenomenal job with it," Willis said. "For Georgia and metro Atlanta, it's a really important conversation."
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