ATLANTA – By way of the center of the later decade, Georgians could possibly move between Atlanta and Savannah via high-speed rail, fending off site visitors and costly breeze fares.
The order Branch of Transportation has introduced a find out about of the feasibility of connecting the 2 city facilities with an intercity passenger rail order. The company held the primary “stakeholder” assembly on-line in January to start out amassing society comments at the challenge, with extra deliberate next this week.
If that first consultation is any indication, Georgians are enticed via the theory, mentioned Clement Solomon, director of the DOT’s Intermodal Category. The assembly drew greater than 4,000 society feedback, Solomon mentioned.
“There’s definitely interest,” he mentioned. “It could potentially reduce the challenges we have today.”
The speculation of bringing intercity passenger rail to Georgia is going again many years and takes up voluminous research. Numerous initiatives were held out as giving vacationers an supplementary to rising site visitors congestion alongside the order’s interstate freeway corridors.
But even so the Atlanta-to-Savannah proposal, the DOT is also taking part in research involving doable passenger rail traces that may run from Atlanta to Charlotte, N.C., and from Atlanta thru Chattanooga, Tenn., and Nashville to Memphis.
“We need to have ways to connect our communities,” Savannah Mayor Van Johnson mentioned. “Rail is really the way for us to be able to connect.”
The fresh find out about of an Atlanta-to-Savannah rail order is within the early phases. Planners have not begun to come to a decision which of a number of doable routes to worth, the place stations will have to be situated, or which era to make use of.
The DOT additionally hasn’t recognized investment resources for the challenge, past $10 million in making plans cash for the find out about – an $8 million lend from the Federal Railroad Management and a $2 million order fit.
Solomon mentioned the DOT is thinking about 3 choices for the routes: construction it alongside present rail traces, construction a fresh order utterly distant from present traces, or going with a mixture of fresh and present monitor.
That call will advance far towards deciding the place to manufacture stations. Towns the find out about is thinking about as doable station places come with Augusta, Athens, Macon, Milledgeville, Statesboro, and Vidalia, along with the ends of the order in Atlanta and Savannah.
Solomon mentioned the DOT most likely will go for high-speed rail as the most popular era as a result of that’s what the society needs. Top-speed trains can move at speeds of least 125 miles consistent with moment, reducing move occasions.
“People want to get there,” he mentioned.
Solomon mentioned opting for high-speed rail would have a big have an effect on on finding stations alongside the course.
“(High-speed rail) reduces the number of stations,” he mentioned. “If you have 10 stations, it defeats the purpose of high-speed rail.”
Bert Brantley, president and CEO of the Savannah Branch Chamber of Trade, injected a word of warning within the making plans for intercity passenger rail. He famous the opportunity of a high-speed rail order to disrupt freight rail site visitors shifting out and in of the Port of Savannah, the lifeblood of the patch’s economic system. Certainly, how freight rail and passenger rail would coordinate alongside the similar tracks has served as a drawback to earlier passenger rail initiatives that haven’t come to fruition.
“It’s not the no-brainer people might assume,” Brantley mentioned. “We have to be very careful. We don’t want to create a benefit that comes at the expense of jobs, growth, and new investment.”
Underneath the timeline prepared for the DOT feasibility find out about, preliminary making plans will pull playground this week thru 2027, with the company deciding such problems because the course, station places, and the era that will likely be impaired. If the challenge is deemed possible, an environmental have an effect on find out about will start in 2028.
