Local maglev project gets major U.S. grant

[osrb]

Plans for a modern, high-speed Chattanooga Choo-Choo picked up steam Thursday when federal officials agreed to fund a more detailed study of a proposed rail line between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., announced that the Federal Transit Administration will provide $14.2 million to pay for environmental and engineering studies of a proposed magnetic levitation train route through North Georgia.


Times Free Press
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I am not going to hold my breath but I would like to see this happen. As long as the price is reasonable I would use this.

[Justin Thyme]

Don't hold your breath. This is mostly about just getting grant money. I don't expect the first shovel of dirt to ever be turned.

[Tsavodiner]

Yeah. They should "just quit".

[Justin Thyme]

Quit? In this case there's nothing to quit. There was never any intention to actually build the train to begin with. It's just a scheme to loot more tax money with study after study after study.

[fftspam]

This is not about a passenger train from the Chattanooga airport to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.
That is what gets the headlines.

Do you actually think that a track that is used only once an hour shuttling people between ATL and CHA is all that is envisioned?

The train, when finished, would actually link the two busiest airports in the world... OHare and ATL.... AND then Port of Brunswick on the south.

Freight traffic would pay for the thing. By getting trucks off the road... less trucks=less traffic=less pollution=less congestion=less new road construction.. etc. A truck driver could pick up a cargo load in Brunswick, drive onto the train, and be in ATL in 1hrs, CHA in an 2hrs, BNA in 3hrs, SDF in 4, IND in 5, ORD in 6. Intermixed with the freight traffic would be the passenger rail... and the passenger traffic is actually an side line, so to speak, of the cargo traffic.

Imagine taking long haul trucks off the road by giving them a fast and reliable north south alternative? Imagine less trucks through the ridgecut??

Do not Poo Poo an idea unless you know the facts.

[Justin Thyme]

Fewer trucks on the road with less road construction means fewer jobs. Do you think that will really fly with unemployment at about 10%?

No, this is a great idea who's time will never be. However, there's a lot of money in studying the feasibility of the project and a lot of grant writers out there who know how to get grants.

[osrb]

How many times has this study been done? I have been hearing about it since I moved here in 1993.

[Justin Thyme]

It's been done more than once but each new route that's proposed gets its own study. Chattanooga is full of grant writers. I used to get proposals from various companies that were comprised of a couple of people in an office who would want to hire me to write engineering specs for grant proposals with the idea that I would get paid when the grants were approved. These folks would throw out a whole bunch of grant proposals and then would hire out the actual study when a grant was approved. I see pretty much the same thing happening with this maglev train.

[LimitedRecourse]

"Local maglev project gets major U.S. grant"

I think that's supposed to be major GENERAL U.S. Grant.

[JC]

Sept 14, 2009 1:00:46 GMT -5 fftspam said:

This is not about a passenger train from the Chattanooga airport to Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson.
That is what gets the headlines.

Do you actually think that a track that is used only once an hour shuttling people between ATL and CHA is all that is envisioned?

The train, when finished, would actually link the two busiest airports in the world... OHare and ATL.... AND then Port of Brunswick on the south.

Freight traffic would pay for the thing. By getting trucks off the road... less trucks=less traffic=less pollution=less congestion=less new road construction.. etc. A truck driver could pick up a cargo load in Brunswick, drive onto the train, and be in ATL in 1hrs, CHA in an 2hrs, BNA in 3hrs, SDF in 4, IND in 5, ORD in 6. Intermixed with the freight traffic would be the passenger rail... and the passenger traffic is actually an side line, so to speak, of the cargo traffic.

Imagine taking long haul trucks off the road by giving them a fast and reliable north south alternative? Imagine less trucks through the ridgecut??

Do not Poo Poo an idea unless you know the facts.

It wouldn't cut down any local truck traffic....if anything it would increase the traffic.
It might cut down on some of the long haul stuff,but trucks would still need to pick the freight up from the train yard to deliver to Anytown,and with a train yard here,that would mean more interstate traffic for us here.

I would actually say that it wouldn't change trucking freight one bit,but instead conventional choo-choo trains would see a dramatic decrease in freight with the new high-speed train.

[Jay]

I think it'd be a nice thing to have. I'm doubtful it'll ever happen though..

[coffeeshooter]

I read somewhere that DD Eisenhower is the reason we haven't got a decent rail system. While Europe was improving their rails, we spent the money on our Interstate system.

Apparently, during Korea & WWII Germany & Russia had a heavy presence in South America. DDE realized that it took too long for us to move troops to our Southern borders. He made a vow to himself to build a highway system that could expedite troop movement in an emergency.

Sadly, at this time in our history, we can't evacuate our Southern coastlines of citizens because of too many cars.