The Georgia Department of Transportation is working with its counterpart in Tennessee to seek $34 million in federal funds to build a high-speed rail line linking Atlanta with Chattanooga, Tenn.
Earlier this summer, the Federal Railroad Administration announced that states could apply for funding through the U.S. High Speed Intercity Passenger Rail program created by Congress last year. The money would be used to plan and implement high-speed rail service along approved corridors.
“Even before the federal … program was announced, Georgia was already planning several related projects,” State Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith said Monday in a prepared statement. “We expect to fit right in.”
In May, the State Transportation Board voted to seek $14.5 million in federal planning grants for three other high-speed rail projects.
The Georgia DOT is working with other Southeastern states on a rail line linking Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., and a line between Atlanta and Macon that would continue on to Jacksonville, Fla.
The third project approved as part of the funding application authorized in May calls for an in-state rail loop linking Atlanta, Athens, Augusta, Savannah and Macon.
Georgia received short shrift earlier this year when President Barack Obama announced that $8 billion in federal stimulus funds were going out to state and local governments for high-speed rail projects. While some states received hundreds of millions of dollars, Georgia’s share was a relatively paltry $750,000.
The proposed Atlanta-to-Chattanooga line would continue on to Nashville, Tenn., and Louisville, Ky. The project received $14 million from the feds last year.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Ga. seeks federal funds for high-speed rail
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