The Georgia Department of Transportation is updating the state’s rail plan — the articulation of our vision for safe, sustainable, environmentally sound, energy-efficient passenger and freight rail service.
Yes, that’s a mouthful. And I recognize that passenger rail — or perhaps more succinctly, the lack thereof — tends to capture the biggest headlines and generate the most discussion when Georgians speak of rail.
But I suggest it is important we first recognize the full spectrum of our transportation network to bring any single component into focus. That network has many components. Youngsters walking to school, bicyclists on a trail, bus and rail transit riders, commuters, tractor trailers, trains, airplanes, cargo ships — all are elements of the various systems that, in totality, make up Georgia’s transportation network. An individual system’s role might increase or diminish periodically for any number of reasons.
True, passenger rail service in Georgia today is to some extent more aspirational than robust: an Amtrak route through Atlanta, and another through Savannah. Passenger rail may well come to play a bigger role; we hope it can. But there is another rail system that already plays a vital role right now and helps improve the life of probably every Georgian: freight rail.
While most of us likely don’t come into direct contact with it regularly, freight rail is here, and it’s huge. The two major players, CSX and Norfolk Southern, own more than 4,600 miles of track in Georgia on which they move nearly 190 million tons of freight a year, a number forecast to increase to 217 million tons by 2040.
They are complemented by 29 “short line” railroads that, for the most part, serve businesses and industries in smaller Georgia communities. These are regional lines that operate on another 1,000-plus miles of track, 540 of which they lease from GDOT. While their impacts may be smaller in scale, just ask leaders of the rural Georgia communities they serve how important short lines are; better yet, ask the workers whose jobs they’ve saved.
Freight rail helps sustain more than 600,000 Georgia jobs and adds more than $54 billion to the state’s economy. It links our ports and distribution centers to virtually every community in the state and thousands more across the South, East and Midwest. (Not to mention, freight rail takes thousands of trucks off our highways.)
A primary Georgia DOT freight rail responsibility is the development of short line infrastructure. We are responsible for the safety and maintenance of the track and 176 bridges on the 540 miles we own. We do so solely with annual appropriations from the General Assembly. This year, we received less than a fourth of the $40 million we recommend devoting to it annually.
We understand, though. In the state Legislature and Congress, there is intense demand and fierce competition for limited public funds. Which brings us back to passenger rail and the tens of billions of dollars it will take to turn aspiration into reality.
Georgia DOT’s duty is to plan and be prepared to implement passenger rail should our elected leaders so decide. We are prepared. We consult regularly with our colleagues in Tennessee, the Carolinas and at the Federal Rail Administration. We will meet this month with partners from six other Southern Rail Commission states to share strategies. Already, we have made preliminary determinations that passenger rail links between Atlanta and Columbus, Birmingham, Louisville, Charlotte and Jacksonville would be feasible.
Advancing from preliminary feasibility to environmentally acceptable, economically viable and operationally sustainable is a lengthy, complicated, expensive — and speculative — process. It may happen; it may not.
Regardless, make no mistake: Rail already is, and always will be, an integral component of Georgia’s overall transportation network.
