(The Associated Press circulated the following story on September 7.)
ATLANTA — A long-planned commuter rail line between Atlanta and Macon will get $25 million in new funding next week, with most of the money going toward real estate for train stations and to improve road crossings.
Gov. Sonny Perdue will announce Monday that Georgia will put up about $4 million, setting up $21 million in federal matching grants, The Macon Telegraph reported.
Last month, a $10 million combination of state and federal funds was earmarked for the commuter rail line. The rail investments surprised some because Perdue has backed off his predecessors vision for commuter rail lines as a fix to Atlantas traffic problems. Perdue has said road improvements and express buses should come first.
The state Department of Transportation will use the $25 million package to improve the 159 road-rail intersections between Atlanta and Macon, and to purchase land for train stations.
State officials will also try to broker an agreement with Norfolk Southern Corp. to either buy or rent the Macon-Atlanta rail lines.
A glacier is frozen, but even it moves slowly, DOT spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas said. I dont know that anybody should get excited. (Rail service) is still way off in the future.
Still, the expected announcement Monday suggests that plans for a passenger-rail connection between Macon and Atlanta are not dead, as had been speculated earlier this year.
Perdue had said that he favored exploring regional-express buses instead of commuter rail, and that funds wouldnt be available for rail because of the states budget shortfall.
Another reason for Perdues announcement Monday is that if Georgia had not triggered the federal match for rail, the state could have lost the money to other federal projects, Gavalas said.
The states $4 million portion of the new money will be financed through the sale of bonds backed by motor-fuel tax proceeds. The $4 million rail money is part of a larger package of $64 million in statewide transportation-improvement projects.
The projected total cost of building the Macon-Atlanta rail line could reach about $600 million. That figure includes buying rail cars and other equipment, as well as either leasing or purchasing the line from Norfolk Southern.
Once completed, Atlanta and Macon would be part of a statewide rail network. Atlantas downtown terminal would be the center for bus and rail service throughout metro Atlanta and north Georgia.
Macons Terminal Station is projected as the gateway to middle and south Georgia, with the rail line fanning out from Macon to Columbus, Savannah and other cities.