From a Georgia Senate Committee on Transportation substitute for House Bill 160:
The intent of this article is to establish a council for the purpose of developing a state-wide,strategic transit plan with the guidance of a recognized industry leader in delivering transit strategy for multijurisdictional entities which emphasizes first-mile and last-mile services, the development of a seamless transportation network with dependable trip times for commuters, the enhancement of limited access highways, road congestion relief, safety enhancements, and plans for a future of transportation innovations.
Conservative transit advocates William S. Lind and Glen D. Bottoms in The Texas Tribune in 2015:
Libertarians’ arguments against rail transit mostly boil down to one criticism: It’s subsidized. Yes, it is. So is all other transportation. Highway user fees now cover only 47.5 percent of the cost of highways. Nationally, rail transit of all types covers 50 percent of its operating costs from fares. It’s a veritable wash. In contrast, bus systems, which libertarians often favor over rail, cover only 28 percent of their operating costs from the farebox.
From The AJC, March 15:
At a House State Properties Committee meeting Tuesday (March 14), State Property Officer Steven Stancil assured lawmakers a commuter rail provision would be included in the lease — and may be stronger than the existing language. But he’d prefer lawmakers not tie the agency’s hands by stipulating that the provision be included.
That wiggle room made some transit advocates and lawmakers nervous. If the resolution passes, the lease would not come back to the General Assembly for approval.
“The lease is going to be secret until it’s signed, ” Jim Dexter of Citizens for Progressive Transit told the committee. “At that point, there’s nothing we can do about it for the next 50 years.”
From the 1876 Handbook of Georgia:
THE WESTERN AND ATLANTIC RAILROAD, OR STATE ROAD.
This important line is wholly a State enterprise, built with money from the Treasury, and entirely owned by the State.
It was undertaken by Act of December 21st, 1836, after a severe struggle and a greatly prolonged debate extending through several days, a thing then almost unprecedented in Georgia, in which a number of the first minds of the State participated.
The bill passed the House by a majority of only 3 votes. Its declared object was to establish a “Railroad communication as a State work, and with the funds of the State, to be made from some point on the Tennessee River, commencing at or near Rossville, in the most direct and practicable route, to some point on the south-eastern bank of the Chattahoochee River … .”
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