Bad news/Good news

The bad news:
Our great state's short-sighted, issue-neglecting leaders have squandered the chance for millions in high speed rail money.

Georgia appears to have won as little as $750,000 from the $8 billion pool of high-speed rail grants.
...
Last fall, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood told a number of states, including Georgia and Florida, that they had better get their act together on rail transit or risk losing out on the high-speed rail grants.

In a special session weeks later, Florida voted additional annual funding for one transit rail line and expedited buying track for another.

What did Georgia's legislators do? Not a thing. And what are they doing now? Talking about more tax cuts for big business (and campaign contributors) and ethics re-form.

All of which nets us, the traffic and air pollution-beleaguered residents of the state, with .0094% of the federal funding available for high speed inter-city rail.

The good news?

Maybe folks will finally get fired up about the ridiculous priorities of our state government and demand some actual governance, the kind that faces reality and seeks informed solutions to our common problems.

Gov. Perdue sure likes talking the talk. Will we ever see any action? That's largely up to us. We'll have to drag our highway-loving legislature kicking and screaming, but we can make it happen.

Let your legislator know how disappointed you are!

U.S. Trans Sec rightfully disses GA

Via Blake Aued's blog:

For decades, Athens residents have despaired of ever seeing a much-needed and much-discussed commuter train to Atlanta move forward while our leaders pay lip service to the concept.

Georgia is the largest state in the nation that does not fund mass transit. Do not expect any help from the Obama Administration – which has set aside billions for light rail – until state officials make a commitment.

“The Northeast (high-speed rail) corridor has its act together,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood told AJC columnist Jay Bookman. “The Midwest corridor has its act together. The governors there have set aside their own egos and their own ambitions” to work together on bringing high-speed rail to those regions.

“If the people of Atlanta think it’s OK to sit in traffic for an hour and a half on the way to a doctor’s appointment, so be it,” LaHood said (hat tip to JMac).

Come to think of it, just about every politician I’ve ever interviewed, from governor on down to county commissioner, has been in favor of the Brain Train. Yet it never gets done. Funny how that works.

Indeed. Haha.

Federal funds available for rail in Georgia

High-speed and traditional rail may yet come to Georgia.

Though the revival of passenger rail service has been talked of and dreamed of for decades, the federal government now is offering huge sums to states that could provide the locomotion to finally pull the train out of the station.
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The board of the Georgia Department of Transportation voted last month to draft a statewide proposal for submission to Washington as a way of tapping into the flood of federal money. Six months earlier, it had hired a young hotshot, Erik Steavens, to begin coordinating its modest rail line with bus service and highways. He began by dusting off railroad plans sketched out in the 1990s. Georgia lawmakers in the '90s had mandated the order in which trains would be put into service, starting with a line between Atlanta and Macon, because the power in the legislature at the time was centered in South Georgia. The first phase of that line was to run 26 miles from Atlanta to Lovejoy, to be expanded next to Griffin.

Steavens intends to follow that framework, which would include connections in Macon to other Southern cities.

Advocates and real estate developers also have lobbied for a line between Atlanta and Athens that they dubbed the "Brain Train" because it would link so many universities. Joined by environmentalists, they have been the most vocal supporters of passenger rail service in Georgia.

Rail in GA

Flagpole's editor discusses our missed chances and potential opportunities for rail in Georgia.

Meanwhile, Kevan Williams delves into the role of maps and images in communicating development project proposals.

National rail plan includes GA

"President Barack Obama announced plans Thursday for a national high-speed rail network that would include lines crisscrossing North and South Georgia connected through a hub in Atlanta."

Full story.