Atlanta Forward readers responded to last week’s columns on rail. One called for more investment in passenger rail; the other said the expense of high-speed rail was too much. Here is a sample of comments under the writers’ chosen screen names:
Mangler: If your bullet train ticket between Atlanta and Charlotte or from Atlanta to Miami were to include a Zip-car type rental waiting for you there at the station, then sure, that would work nicely. However, when zooming from city to city that doesn't have an integrated transit system, there is hardly a justification for using a train (outside of simply liking to ride a train). Riding from Boston to Manhattan on a train is nice, since both of those cities have multi-modal transit options and you are allowed to use a laptop and phone on a train ride without getting yelled at. They hit a key point for passenger service, the 200- to 500-mile range. Anything longer than that, and you start seriously losing ground to flying. From Atlanta, that's hitting only a few cities large enough to warrant having train service. As for ridership cost, that's a huge detractor as well. I would pay similar amounts for a train vs. a plane, but not two or three times what a flight would cost.
USC69: Transportation made Atlanta — rail followed by air — and high-speed rail is critical for continued growth and recruitment. Piggyback is here to stay, and with the widening of the Panama Canal, we can anticipate increased deliveries to Savannah with possible distribution throughout the Southeast, if we are prepared. Modern culture — New York, L.A., San Francisco — is producing workers who actually prefer to ride the subway to work rather than spend two hours of life in a personal polluting automobile. This is a concept difficult for older Americans to understand and accept, but good competitors could get over their biases and support expansion of Atlanta's current systems.
Bernie: The infrastructure for a larger future rail system is already in place within Atlanta and Georgia. Georgia's real problem when it comes to this subject (is) it lacks the serious state and local leadership to take advantage of such an opportunity. There is no political will or desire for such action. Sadly, nothing will change to improve transportation in Georgia until this generation of political leaders has moved on.
Sawb: A solution would be to work with private business to get a line going between Atlanta and Savannah. Yes, I know it won't be some Euro-Bullet-Maglev special, but it would help gauge regional interest and viability of passenger rail. If the interest is there, and the investors make money, more projects would grow organically; and if things don't work out — well, at least we'll know.
Don: The very first step should be to leverage what we have — Amtrak's Crescent. Put in a suburban Atlanta stop between Duluth and Buford. More people live within 10 miles of this location than around the Atlanta Peachtree station. These are people who would use a train if it went to useful places at useful times of the day.
