Georgia Passenger Rail A Big And Complex Hurdle
This week’s Courier Herald column:
With the legislative focus on transit solutions for the metro Atlanta area, the topic of intercity rail throughout the state is also receiving renewed discussion. It seems logical, as the discussion presenting the real potential of extending passenger rail beyond Atlanta’s inner core could lead to a network connecting Georgia’s smaller cities.
Discussion is easy. Implementation is much harder.
There is a fundamental problem with how Georgia’s rail network is currently configured that impedes the development of both commuter rail and intercity rail. Most of Georgia’s freight rail network run on a single track line with rail spurs. In other words, if the rail line runs north to south, all of the northbound trains run for a while, then pull over to side spurs, and the southbound trains then run while the northbound trains are parked. There’s a delicate ballet that runs all day, every day, to keep the freight moving.
This system works because freight is not as time sensitive as human passengers. If freeway traffic cooperates, one can drive from Atlanta to Savannah in about 4 hours. An express freight train will take about 12 to complete the same journey.
Adding passengers to existing freight rails presents many challenges and ultimately may present a counterintuitive result. Rail operators are highly reluctant to put passenger trains on lines carrying freight. This weekend’s accident in South Carolina which killed two including a Georgia based engineer illustrates the unfortunate problem. No matter how many safeguards are put in place, there is not a system that will not eventually fail. While few will say it publicly, freight operators consider passenger trains on their tracks a detriment to overall safety.
Still, there are exceptions made, often with the state accepting liability to induce freight rail operators to allow passenger rail on their lines. In earlier example of a north-south rail line, one would have to stop all freight traffic – both northbound and southbound – to let each passenger train pass.
That’s the other reason freight operators don’t like passenger rail. In order to move one train filled with people, the movement of freight – their main source of revenue – grinds to a halt. The result is that it takes longer to move goods over already congested freight lines, pushing some freight back onto trucks.
That counterintuitive result? The passenger rail that is supposed to relieve traffic by taking cars off of the roads may actually put more trucks on it. Done the wrong way, passenger rail could make traffic worse, not better.
That’s not to say that passenger rail will not be part of Georgia’s transportation plan going forward. It’s merely a caution that it is neither a simple nor cheap proposition.
Negotiations continue for MARTA to begin commuter rail operations through Clayton County on underutilized Norfolk Southern freight lines. Most likely this line would avoid the problem of mixing freight and passenger rail by building parallel tracks to the freight rail.
The City of Columbus has also begun the study of building a passenger line along I-85 to Atlanta with a stop for commuters in Newnan. The plan would be to use existing freeway right of way in the median to get the train up to Newnan. Acquisition of right-of-way from Newnan to Atlanta becomes exponentially more expensive however. Other corridors such as the Northwest Corridor from Atlanta to Marietta and beyond are under discussion, but would require significant upgrades to the existing rail network in order to work for passenger rail operations.
The final barrier that is often overlooked in expanding Georgia’s rail network is the condition and capacity of the existing freight network. The state’s population growth and the rapid growth from Georgia’s ports has increased the demand for freight capacity significantly. Even without adding passenger rail, much of Georgia’s freight network is in need of significant capital upgrades just to keep up with existing demand.
Expect to see a significant bill aimed at improving Georgia’s rail network this session, using tax credits to encourage upgrades and deferred maintenance on Georgia’s rails. This isn’t aimed at passenger rail, but to handle the freight we already have, and will have.
In short, passenger rail is part of the discussion for Atlanta and all of Georgia’s traffic solutions. We need to understand that freight rail is not an insignificant component of Georgia’s road congestion issues, and that adding a network of passenger rail is not as easy as finding an open piece of track and adding more trains to it.
About Author
Charlie
Founder of GeorgiaPol.com; Now weekly columnist Very interested in Georgia and Georginas. Interest in politics is waning daily.
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Much to the disappointment of some passenger rail will not seriously impact traffic in and around Atlanta where Inland ports and freight rail can help reduce traffic, specifically truck traffic. Inland port to take freight traffic outside of Atlanta was a good idea and I hope is being implemented now. Other inland ports should also be considered and I think more are in the works.
Passenger rail or the kind of passenger rail needed, which is high speed intercity passenger rail, has no infrastructure. As was pointed out it is not a good idea to share passenger with freight. Marta works well because the MARTA system has its own infrastructure separate from freight. If we want to expand passenger rail in Atlanta and the Atlanta region the best way to have a head start is a regional solution with MARTA as the hub. Senator Beach is on the right track. I think we saw the pitfalls trying to plan for the “Brain Train” from GSU in Atlanta to UGA in Athens. If I recall it would require over 20 dollars in subsidies for each ticket, that figure may even be low. Any passenger rail is going to, at least in the beginning, require subsides. The key to taxpayers agreeing to whatever those subsidies are is to keep that outlay as small as possible. Use Interstate right of ways to save money and keep that thinking for all aspects of the project. If you are going to have to subsidize each ticket with an extra 20 buck’s taxpayers won’t buy into it.
We will need passenger rail in the future and we should continue to plan for it but the best solution for the most impact on reducing traffic around Atlanta is improving freight train infrastructure plus inland ports.
It is helpful to remember that fifty years ago, most of those train routes handled not only loose-car freight trains, but also, perhaps, 30 passenger trains which traveled to Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Washington, Augusta, Savannah, Birmingham and Columbus. Not to mentions points in Florida.
Locally, there were the various lines which are now part of the Beltline. This in a time when there were seven railroad companies that needed to exchange freight cars with each other. Now, those seven companies are two companies, making those interchange lines unnecessary.
The MARTA heavy rail lines have far more capacity than is used. Adding additional service is a matter of demand to justify the additional costs of personnel and equipment. The Class I railroad network is in far better shape than is being described in this piece. The lines which are currently handling the freight railroad traffic could only do so if they were well maintained. Adding passenger service would indeed be an inconvenience, but half of the motivation to get rid of the passenger trains in the first place was because the government was systematically supporting competing forms of transportation in the forms of highways and airports.
Indeed, the closest example might the late Atlanta & Northern, which operated between downtown Atlanta and downtown Marietta via Smyrna and the Lockheed plant. Construction of US 41 allowed for an operator to buy and abandon this electrically powered line and switch to motor buses operating on that highway. Imagine what we might have if things had been left alone and the line had improved organically over the next 70 years.
Good piece by Charlie on Georgia’s rail network. In contrast to Atlanta, cities such as Chicago and New York have multiple track lines running out of their areas, allowing for a mix of freight and passenger (Chicago being the country’s number 1 freight rail center in terms of volume). At one time—maybe up to the 1950s and 1960s—Southern Railway (today’s Norfolk Southern) had a double-track line all the way to DC from Atlanta, but that was truncated years ago—leaving Atlanta on Amtrak’s Crescent for DC, double-track ends just short of Norcross (with much of the rest of the trip single-track with sidings). And Atlanta’s location in the Piedmont meant that when rail lines were built years ago (most of them before 1900), the lines featured lots of curves and grades, which of course hinders train speeds. (Look at a railroad map of Atlanta, and you don’t find long tangents—in other words, long stretches of straight track.)
One obvious gap in Amtrak’s national service is Chicago to Florida—no direct way between the two. A more direct routing would come through Tennessee (probably Nashville and Chattanooga), then via Atlanta and Macon; however, the Norfolk Southern and CSX lines connecting Atlanta and Chattanooga carry huge amounts of freight traffic (especially Norfolk Southern), as those routes are their connectors to the industrial Midwest—and mostly single-track lines too. In contrast, there is not as much freight traffic on Norfolk Southern’s line from Atlanta to DC, which hosts Amtrak’s Crescent.
The Augusta paper years ago had some op-ed about possibly getting Amtrak to detour there off of their Columbia-Savannah line (the line that has the fatal collision this past Sunday). However, it never got anywhere, perhaps in part because the Norfolk-Southern line between Augusta and Columbia has lots of curves and grades, thus not ideally suited for passenger trains. (In contrast, the Columbia-Savannah CSX stretch has more tangents and is better suited for passenger trains—and the line is not as busy in terms of freight traffic as the CSX line that runs closer to 95 via Charleston, Florence and Fayetteville, NC). And the CSX line connecting Augusta with Atlanta, which CSX has downgraded in recent years, has lots of curves and grades—by rail between the two cities is about 20 miles longer than by road (I-20/River Watch Parkway).
The Atlanta – Washington line is currently seeing about 40 trains per day, if not more. It is part of the “Crescent Corridor”. Please see:
http://www.nscorp.com/content/nscorp/en/shipping-options/corridors/crescent-corridor.html
I wasn’t a big fan of the requirement for Positive Train Control when 2008 legislation requiring it was enacted, but I’m coming around. The Amtrak wreck at the I-5 overpass in the NW wouldn’t have happened had PTC been in place. The SC wreck investigation is in its infancy, but it too may well have been avoided if PTC had been in service. (PTC by and large is supposed to be in service on all other than light traffic freight lines and all passenger train routes by the end of the year, with a few exceptions for it to be in service as late as the end of 2020.)
Of note with respect to the Georgia freight network (and other parts of the country as well) is that it’s been given a breather with respect to capacity with the shift from coal to natural gas for electricity generation.
It all comes down to money, and how much it will cost. Unfortunately most people are brainwashed with the thought that if a private company isnt building it or there isnt a “public/private partnership” then it shouldnt happen. There are things government should build and builds better, but people dont understand that…thus the state our infrastructure, another causality to ideology
Mr. Bear, the Atlanta-Washington line may run 40 trains a day (30-40 was what I saw in a Georgia rail report a few years ago). but that same report listed 50-60 daily trains on the Norfolk-Southern Atlanta-Chattanooga line. Thus, a lot more trains to and from the Midwest than say the Northeast. And at 50-60 trains a day on a mostly single-track line, you are really pushing the limits on additional trains without more track. Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s Chicago-LA “Transcon” is mostly double track and can see 80+ trains a day, mostly fast intermodal trains.
I think Norfolk Southern limits Amtrak trains on its lines to 79 mph max, but large portions of their lines are not suitable for such speeds because of curves, grades, track crossovers, etc. The Atlanta-Birmingham line is a prime example—takes about 4 hours on Amtrak to traverse the 165 miles or so between the two cities (rail miles), and lots and lots of curves….
Maybe someday there will be a high-speed link to Savannah—few people relish driving that monotonous stretch of 16 between Macon and Savannah, or dealing with congestion on 75 below the airport and to Macon.