Commuter Rail should be "Plan B" for Atlanta Transportation (Macon: buy, shop)

[cqholt]

We COULD borrow billions of dollars to connect a small city to Atlanta (that is already connectced by a highway and a 3.5 hour drive) so that we can increase tourism connectivity between two medium sized tourist destinations.

Atlanta is a major tourist destination.
HSR will never work until, we as Americans get over our love for cars or gas gets so expensive that driving to Savannah is cost prohibitive. Cars are to the end all answer to all of our transportation needs. Airplanes work great of long distance, cross-ocean or cross-continental travel. But the feds keep subsidizing air travel to medium and small cities at huge costs.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

The story with that... Nothing is really happening and probably won't for some time.

Long-story.

Mag-lev technology is really too expensive, but has a huge speed advantage... even over high speed rail.


Basically it isn't going to happen, unless we decided to put all our money into building a second airport/major expansion into that one line for the purposes of using their airport.

I'm glad they didn't pursue this, mag-lev. What a waste. Apparently it is only 3.7 mph faster than what conventional high speed rail can output. Maglev - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would like to see the ATL - Chattanooga line go forward though. It would be used to leverage funds to build out a commuter line through Cobb County. Using funds to build both projects would probably allow the line to have all the upgrades to make sure it is farily high speed.

I'm not much for intercity rail, but I think this line is a great candidate.

[cqholt]

I'm not much for inner city rail, but I think this line is a great candidate.

I think you mean intercity lines, as travel between 2 cities.

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I think you mean intercity lines, as travel between 2 cities.

Nope, I meant inner city. Connects the bluffs, Greenbriar, and Lakewood.

Thanks and corrected

[cqholt]

Nope, I meant inner city. Connects the bluffs, Greenbriar, and Lakewood.

Thanks and corrected

I mean who doesn't want to visit The Bluffs?

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

Nope, I meant inner city. Connects the bluffs, Greenbriar, and Lakewood.

We could run a maglev from there to Johns Creek.

[cqholt]

We could run a maglev from there to Johns Creek.

Get those kids from North Fulton to their heroin dealer quicker.

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Atlanta is a major tourist destination.
HSR will never work until, we as Americans get over our love for cars or gas gets so expensive that driving to Savannah is cost prohibitive. Cars are to the end all answer to all of our transportation needs. Airplanes work great of long distance, cross-ocean or cross-continental travel. But the feds keep subsidizing air travel to medium and small cities at huge costs.

HSR will never work until it provides a clear benefit that other current forms of transportation don't already offer. Spending billions upon billions of dollars on new transportation that isn't faster or cheaper doesn't make any sense and would not attract the ridership needed to make the project worthwhile.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by tikigod311

I'm glad they didn't pursue this, mag-lev. What a waste. Apparently it is only 3.7 mph faster than what conventional high speed rail can output. Maglev - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I would like to see the ATL - Chattanooga line go forward though. It would be used to leverage funds to build out a commuter line through Cobb County. Using funds to build both projects would probably allow the line to have all the upgrades to make sure it is farily high speed.

I'm not much for intercity rail, but I think this line is a great candidate.

Well that isn't exactly true.

I see where you pulled the fact from, but keep in mind it is comparing absolute top record speeds ever recorded for any technology and thats assuming that wikipedia factoid is true. (ie. not normal operating conditions, perfect built conditions (flat, no curves), and out of service and they are pushing barriers.)

In the US high speed rail's proposed top speed is 220 mph, but in many corridors (depending on how it is built and design constraints) will actually function much slower, so when we are talking about HSR in the US we are often talking about a range of 90-220 mph realistically.

Mag lev built from scratch average higher speeds in normal use than rail. Depending on design constraints it will likely see high speeds in the low 300s or upper 200s and could avg mid-200's, so it would be a decent amount faster for getting from point A to point B.

The only way for us to get exact numbers for both technologies in that corridor would be to do precise engineering studies detailing how they build it (ie. alignment, grade - hills, valleys, bridges, etc... -, curves...)

[southernc]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

HSR will never work until it provides a clear benefit that other current forms of transportation don't already offer.

First, we should define high speed rail in the US. Acela, on the Northeast Corridor running from DC-New York-Boston, is the best we currently have. It is not like the European or Asian high speed trains or MAGLEV; rather it is fast conventional passenger rail.

That said, the Northeast Corridor in the US is highly effective and is self-sufficient financially. It has replaced shuttle flights between city-pairs such as New York and Boston, thus increasing airport capacity in both cities and freeing gates for long-distance flights.

US "high speed rail" is competitive with flying and driving in both travel time and cost for trips up to 250 miles, especially from center-city to center-city (under 4 hours).

The best option for Atlanta is to implement the existing plan to upgrade the NE rail corridor (parallel to I-85 north) toward Charlotte. NC and VA are already working to continue the Acela train south from DC to Raleigh and Charlotte. Greenville and Spartanburg are mid-sized destinations in between Atlanta and Charlotte. And Acela-type rail service between Atlanta and Charlotte , under 4 hours including stops, would be time- and cost-competitive with air and highway trips.

Here is a map of the federal high speed rail corridors in the southeast: SEHSR
and for the whole country: US high speed rail

As others pointed out, there is a gap in the plan between Atlanta and Chicago (specifically Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Louisville). I think that Atlanta-Charlotte-Raleigh-DC, as currently planned, would be a better first line on which to improve passenger rail (e.g. US "high speed rail") before filling the midwest gap. But I am not opposed to adding a NW line.

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Commuter rail in metro Atlanta is even more cost effective than inter-city rail as a first step. Improved passenger rail for both commuter and inter-city travel serving Atlanta would be mutually beneficial, and would reduce costs further to improve service along the existing freight rail lines, and would be eligible for available federal money for improvements.

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US High Speed Rail


SE High Speed Rail


Atlanta Commuter Rail