Copyright 1999 The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta
Journal and Constitution
January 28, 1999, Thursday, CONSTITUTION
EDITION
SECTION: LOCAL NEWS; Pg. 03C
LENGTH: 360 words
SERIES: Home
HEADLINE: Atlanta-to-Athens line OK'd for commuting;
The rail service, approved Wednesday by a state agency, could be reality in
four years if all details are worked out.
BYLINE: Doug
Payne
BODY:
After studying alternative ways
to move people around the Atlanta metro area without adding to existing traffic
congestion, the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority on Wednesday approved a plan
for a 68-mile commuter rail line from Atlanta to Athens.
The trains could start rolling in as little as four years if everything
falls into place smoothly, said authority Chairman Jack Martin. The plan calls
for trains to run over existing freight rails, with eight stops
between Atlanta and Athens, at a cost of $ 114 million. The other alternatives
studied by the authority were a "no-build" option --- making no changes,
offering commuters no choices other than their current options of driving or
taking existing bus or MARTA routes to work --- and a new commuter bus line from
Athens to Atlanta. Neither alternative adequately met the authority's criteria
of improving transportation service in the metro area, reducing highway
congestion, encouraging economic development and improving the area's air
quality.
Martin said the authority still has to negotiate federal
funding for the project. Talks between the authority and CSX Railroad, which
owns the lines the commuter trains would use, are under way and making progress,
he said.
Need for the commuter rail is driven not just by congestion on
area highways but by job growth in the area, officials say. For example,
"Gwinnett County has become a job-base community," said Gwinnett Commission
Chairman Wayne Hill. "It is going to become as important to come from Athens to
Gwinnett (to work) as it is from Gwinnett to downtown Atlanta."
The rail
line also is expected to serve university and business communities in Athens and
at Emory University. Stops have been proposed for Bogart, Winder, Dacula,
Lawrenceville, the Ronald Reagan Parkway, Lilburn, Tucker and Emory, with
terminals in downtown Athens and at Five Points in Atlanta.
The next
step in the project is a combined environmental impact and preliminary
engineering study. That could begin this spring, Martin said. A final design
study would commence about a year later, said authority executive director
Arthur Vaughn.
LOAD-DATE: January 29,
1999 
