By Gordon Kenna

You’ll be hearing a lot about passenger rail in the coming months as Georgia considers its next steps toward the future. Why rail?

More than anything else, it’s an economic development issue. Rail drives development, and our neighboring states know that and are acting quickly. All around the country, states are embracing passenger rail as an economic driver. To remain competitive, Georgia must move ahead with rail.
Other answers to the question “Why rail?” include:

• More of the same won’t work. Our interstate system is at capacity, and improvements are costly and in many cases, not feasible.  If change is inevitable, so is rail.
• The market and demographics are shifting towards rail-based development. Many aging Boomers seek rail transportation and it’s a popular choice for their younger counterparts, the Millennials.
• The housing market is changing, too. Homes in the “Drivable Suburban” markets continue to be depressed. “Walkable Urban” neighborhoods such as Virginia Highland and Atlantic Station residential units are gaining in price, yet these types of neighborhoods are scares. Passenger rail will create these walkable urban centers of residential, retail and office space.

If these well-established facts about the real estate market don’t build an adequate case for rail in our Atlanta market, then how about looking at rail for its political value? Although we think of Georgia as rural, in fact it is a very metropolitan state with a large majority of residents living in urban places.

The exaggerated division of rural and urban interests gives us a local platform to rant about our in-state neighbors for not being like us. While Georgians are struggling against each other, our regional neighbors in the southeast are taking a prime position in the new economy. The old “two Georgias” model doesn’t work in a competitive 21st century economy.

Reconnecting Georgia’s cities, starting with Macon, begins to build a real portal into middle Georgia, creating a badly needed secondary growth path for Atlanta and driving development and opportunity into the center of Georgia.  Building the network out into Athens, Augusta, Columbus, Savannah and Rome will build a bridge between urban and rural Georgia. By deliberately building a more unified state we also provide choices in how to develop, live and travel.

In addition to personal choice, rail also facilitates smarter corporate options for scaling, re-sizing, and reconfiguring business units.  With more workplace flexibility and technology than ever, work and travel are far more compatible in a train than a car.

In the world of transportation, trains can be scaled up in a way that highways cannot. With trains, more frequent trips can be scheduled, additional stations added, more cars added to the train. Highway capacity is difficult and expensive to increase, and adding lanes is often simply not viable. Peak travel demands make the road investment inherently inefficient and subject to inexplicable delays.

On the other hand, an upgrade of the rail network also will make a significant improvement in freight movements reducing future truck traffic and will lower maintenance expense for our highways.  With the world’s busiest airport and the fastest growing port in the United States, connecting these public transportation assets with something other than roads only is the ultimate “no brainer” –  rail simply makes sense.

Gordon Kenna is the executive director of Georgians for Passenger Rail. You can reach him at gkenna@georgiarail.org.