Norfolk Southern merger should lead to expanded Atlanta freight rail hub

Almost two centuries ago, the state built the railroad that gave Atlanta its name. The Western and Atlantic carried goods and people from the terminus of the Georgia Railroad northwest, 138 miles through wilderness to the Tennessee River at Chattanooga.

It turned out to be a good bet on the future. Within a few years, Atlanta had become a key connection from the East Coast, across the Appalachians and into the heartland. The W&A launched Georgia as a transport hub for the Southeast and, eventually, the nation.

But great triumphs often generate new predicaments. That humble junction grew into a massive tangle of tracks, switches and yards, increasingly constricted by the city that grew around it. Meanwhile, the rail properties became barriers that hampered both urban development and local mobility.

The problems have been obvious for decades. In 1954, the Atlanta Regional Commission’s first master plan proposed to free the freight hub of its urban constraints by replacing it with a bypass system that could permit freight not destined for the city to move easily and safely to destinations beyond. But around that time, rail freight began to decline. Congestion became less of a problem. The bypass plan stalled.

Cargo containers and more sophisticated management eventually reversed the decline. By then momentum behind a bypass was lost. Since then, the freight resurgence has strained the Atlanta hub to the breaking point.

Despite the controversy, an opportunity can come to light

Jeff Rader is a former DeKalb County commissioner and city planner. (Courtesy)

It’s difficult to say what freight delays centered on Atlanta cost Georgia’s economy; it’s a fair guess the number is well into the billions. They cause backups at the ports of Savannah and Brunswick. They increase the cost of goods for everyone. And they encourage shippers to rely more heavily on trucks, which are costlier, less energy efficient and more hazardous for motorists. Partly driven by the increase in truck traffic, the Georgia Department of Transportation estimates the state will need $90 billion worth of roadwork over the next 25 years.

Today, a unique opportunity has arisen to apply the audacity that built the W&A toward solving a problem generated by the success it spurred. From the state’s perspective, it would end freight bottlenecks in Atlanta. For the city, it could improve mobility, stitch together neighborhoods and free up hundreds of acres of strategically located urban land.

That opportunity turns on the proposed merger of the Union Pacific Railroad and Atlanta-based Norfolk Southern. While controversial on other grounds (including the anticipated loss of jobs in Atlanta), the merger could be leveraged by state and local leaders to kick-start the replacement of outmoded urban infrastructure with a new outer-belt rail corridor.

The solution is tantalizing: As proposed by Mark Hitchcock of Jacobs Engineering, rail freight seeking to bypass Atlanta’s urban core could be served by expanding and connecting existing, often inactive, rights-of-way (together with filling a 12-mile gap in the southeast quadrant). The bypass would feed neatly into the state’s program to build “inland ports” where cargo is moved from trains to trucks and vice versa. By allowing more goods to continue on rail to distant destinations, it also would reduce the need for more highways.

How leaders can participate in the merger discussions

The private sector alone lacks the capacity to complete such an undertaking. But the state could use its statutory authority to issue bonds and offer long-term leases to the railroads, much as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport leases gates to airlines.

The railroads would be relieved of ancient infrastructure handcuffing their growth. They also could sell unneeded property. MARTA, Amtrak or the city could obtain many of the rail rights-of-way for use as intercity, commuter or urban transit corridors. Surplus acreage could be developed to weave old neighborhoods together.

CSX Railroad, which is the second-largest owner of rail infrastructure in Atlanta — and currently leases the still-operating W&A line from the state — also stands to benefit from a shared bypass. But Norfolk Southern carries far more freight through Atlanta and owns more land in the city.