[ale] [OT]atlanta beltway need this!!!

[Mike Harrison]

On Thu, 5 Nov 2009, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> Jim,
>
> I'm not sure if it is the same project, but the Atlanta - Chattanooga
> project got $14M in study money in Sept.
>
> See <http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-high-speed-rail-136662.html?cxntlid=daylf_artr>

It's all the same room full of buckets of money. Not sure where it really 
goes, but there has been a lot of buckets in that room over the year.

There have been other previous "studies" that I thing totaled up would
have upgraded the ailing railroad tracks in and out of Chattanooga
to normal passenger train status and allowed:

   - old fashioned Amtrack stopping in Chattanooga (it currently circles
     around town)

   - a current technology passenger train (40-90mph) providing some
     service from Chattanooga, Dalton, Marietta and Atlanta (especially the
     airport).

But a friend in the railway business explains it this way:
  "Freight pays well and doesn't complain about being 30 minutes late."

So we'll probably have to build a separate railway..