(The following story by Sarah Fay Campbell appeared on The Times-Herald website on March 14.)
NEWNAN, Ga. — There will be commuter rail service coming to Georgia.
That is, if members of the Senate Transportation Committee have their way.
Sen. Doug Stoner, chairman of a subcommittee on intermodal, transit and rail, said Thursday there is “no doubt in my mind” that Georgians will be riding commuter trains in the near future.
Stoner was the only member of that subcommittee on hand for a meeting Thursday that also featured representatives from North Carolina’s successful rail division, Amtrak, CSX, the Georgia Passenger Rail Authority, and a company that specializes in developing high-density projects on rail corridors.
Senate Transportation Chairman Jeff Mullis was on hand for part of the meeting.
“The Senate Transportation Committee is very interested in finding alternative modes of transportation, and we’re a firm believer in light rail, heavy rail, and high-speed ground transportation,” Mullis said. “We hope to start funding intermodal a lot more than it is now. Unfortunately, this year we may not be able to. But in years to come, we plan on doing that.”
In North Carolina, approximately 600,000 people per year ride the commuter trains. About half of those commuters are on two state-sponsored trains, and the rest ride on Amtrak. Some of those trips are long distance trips to places like Washington, D.C. And in North Carolina, passengers pay a whopping 72 percent of the cost of operating the trains. That announcement was met with gasps by the lobbyists and rail advocates in the room.
On average, “fair box recovery” is more like 40 to 50 percent.
Patrick Simmons, director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Rail Division, gave a presentation on the state’s program.
North Carolina has three major urban areas, each with a population of between 1.5 and 1.8 million.
The NCDOT rail division partners with local committees, Simmons said, and hopes are to eventually expand the rail service.
Stations are operated by local communities and are often part of a larger social area. Some stations are historic passenger depots that have been restored, while others are brand new.
Things didn’t happen overnight, of course. The rail system began way back in 1984, with a 10-month demonstration project.
“We learned that people would ride the train,” Simmons said.
The 174-mile trip between Raleigh and Charlotte now takes about three hours, which is about the same as it would take in a car. When the train started, it took nearly five hours. Later this year, the train will make it in under three hours, Simmons said.
And with upgrades, “our intercity passenger program will be faster than driving on the interstate.”
The annual growth rate is about 6.5 percent.
“More people ride today than rode yesterday, and more people will ride tomorrow because the service is there,” Simmons said.
North Carolina is currently partnering with Virginia to improve a line from Charlotte to D.C. By 2010, the train trip should be “auto competitive,” Simmons said.
Incremental improvements are “very much a model that we think makes sense,” said Drew Galloway, vice president of development for Amtrak.
In 1976, the typical run between New York City and D.C. took four hours. Now it’s two hours, 23 minutes, Galloway said. “We expect to go down to two hours, 15 minutes over the next few years,” he said.
By making incremental improvements, “you can maintain service while you’re doing it.”
Carl Rhodenizer, chairman of the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority, reiterated that it wouldn’t take that long to get commuter rail service up and running.
The first line would be phase one of a proposed Macon-to-Atlanta line. It would run from Lovejoy to downtown Atlanta.
And trains could be rolling within two years of funding, Rhodenizer said.
How long it takes to get a commuter rail service started “depends on what condition the railroad is in in the first place, and what facilities are in place,” said Galloway.
Much of the studies and planning for the Lovejoy line were done years ago.
Rhodenizer has been on the authority since 1995. “The program has been put off and put off. And each time we have had to spend money to update all of our numbers. And that’s got to be done again.”
He said the last time he talked with Norfolk Southern Railroad, “they’re still on board and ready to go, but the warning came to me that they needed to reevaluate their cost in track and signal improvements.”
The authority signed an agreement with NFS in 2004. “We passed that agreement on to the DOT commissioner. I believe it is still on the commissioner’s desk,” Rhodenizer said.
The Clayton County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to pick up operating costs, “so we thought we had all of the bases covered at that time,” Rhodenizer said. “Then we had a change in leadership in the county and the first action they took was to rescind that resolution.”
“That put us back where we were before.”
The Lovejoy-to-Atlanta train is projected to carry 3,000 passengers per day, with three trains daily. The travel time is approximately 58 minutes, Rhodenizer said.
Norfolk Southern will need 18 months to do track and signal improvements once they know it’s a go, he said.
The cost of the system, after fares are paid, would be about $5 million a year, Rhodenizer said. But there are grants to cover the first three years of operations.
Deflating the balloon just a bit was Craig Camuso of CSX Railroad. He is also current president of the Georgia Railroad Association.
“Commuter proposals must take into account the impact on freight rail, or we’re going backwards,” Camuso said.
For CSX to entertain the idea of commuter trains on its tracks, four criteria must be met. There must be capacity on the track for the extra trains; the system must be safe, which includes crossing upgrades; CSX must be indemnified against any lawsuits; and “we have to be properly compensated,” Camuso said.
For many years, the railroads in Georgia “have taken a ‘no’ attitude to commuter rail,” Camuso said. But there has been a change of heart.
“We understand it is our opportunity as a corporate citizen,” said Camuso. “We understand that there is a responsibility to at least discuss commuter rail.”
“I do not view commuter rail versus freight as an either/or,” Stoner said. “To me, they are intertwined to a certain degree.”
When asked after the meeting if he foresaw the possibility of a commuter rail service from Newnan, or even LaGrange, to Atlanta, Camuso answered that he’d “never say never.”
“It depends on where the transportation bottlenecks are,” he said.
But that line is very busy, and is, for the most part, a single track line. So the chances are very slim, he said.