Atlanta was settled along the creeks, ridges and hills mostly in the Chattahoochee River basin. First came the crooked winding paths that became roads, followed by railroads from every direction. During the Civil War, Georgia’s rail infrastructure made Atlanta the most strategic location in the South. Our continued investments in highways, airports and ports leveraged rail’s early success.
But now our legacy rail infrastructure is the weak link to modern Georgia’s transportation trifecta.
Our roads, airport and world-class port are the envy of our neighbors. Transportation infrastructure is the largest capital expense of government, and Georgia has invested heavily in roads, airports and ports.
But Georgia stopped investing in rail more than 50 years ago, when our interstate highways were being built. We allowed our rail network to operate largely without a public partner. The track bed that was first laid out, literally in the horse-and-buggy era, never moved to a modernized practical and efficient setting.
Largely because of the success of rail, the city created congestion in the form of higher and mixed-use that makes rail movements difficult and slow. Far too much of our rail infrastructure still goes through the center of the region instead of bypassing to facilities away from the congestion. This old track network for freight limits — and could eliminate — future options for commuter rail service.
There is another even more serious consequence of our inadequate rail infrastructure.
When the enlarged Port of Savannah receives larger ships, the increase in highway freight traffic will put our road infrastructure at serious risk. This has serious consequences for drivers and the DOT budget. Heavy vehicles have a far greater impact on road and bridge maintenance than automobiles. The $652 million harbor project will add billions to Georgia’s highway maintenance costs in urbanized areas — unless we have rail infrastructure to handle some of the heavier freight. Drivers will also pay for the port’s success in the form of more truck traffic congestion on our highways.
Unfortunately, Georgia’s transportation funding is limited to supporting roads and bridges. For three generations, the gas tax was fine for highways, but now even that mechanism is inadequate. Today, legislative approval is necessary for virtually every other transportation expenditure — and the Legislature isn’t a body with long-range vision or the DNA for ambitious projects.
We had that vision in our youth. Today, we are more cautious, conservative and constrained by our self-imposed limits. While we search for more user-pay options, we still need resources for capital funding. We need leadership and planning more than ever. We must address the reality of operations and maintenance funding for all our investments. Most of all, we need to stop pretending that transportation is strictly a private market paid for only by users.
A recognition that transportation is most efficient when it is multi-modal is a good place to start our rethinking process.
Gordon Kenna is CEO of Georgians For Passenger Rail.
