NewsJReview (NJR) While much attention is being paid to transportation in the region, especially after the fiery collapse of a span of I-85 as it passes just north of Midtown Atlanta (adjacent to the Goodwill complex) a thought surfaced. For sure get it fixed!!! But consider also what more can be done… File this idea under #Georgia1st #HighSpeedRail #CAASL (Columbus, Atlanta, Athens and Savannah Line). The benefits far outweigh costs over generations. First and foremost jobs, high and low tech jobs in the thousands, creation of new planned sustainable living environments, farm country, townships, suburbs and urban replicated along the route, also a university system of classrooms as part of the rail offerings beside just the moving of passengers safely about ,and of course tourism would expand 7 fold. The CAAASL or "Castle" line would be a Georgia1st. It’s time to institute sensible transportation for residents in state. Arguably those who travel east, west, north and south through our state from out of state have more options than residents. So, we should plan, incrementally, inclusively, and long term to the benefit of Georgians as well as those from beyond Georgia borders. Look at the map…Atlanta would get that 7th runway, albeit in Columbus and Columbus finally has a direct link, not a bypass route, to Atlanta…The University of Georgia system can think even further outside the classroom box, and the list of opportunities are endless, continuous, by truly adding the transportation sector as a mechanism for improving the lives of Georgians in the near future and for generations to come… No it’s not a Beltline, circular and all. Look at the Map…I see a seven…a full cycle, a completion, which in my book is more than a fix; as a friend of mine often says “let that marinate for a while.” These are a few of my thoughts on a beautiful Georgia Day, in traffic. I am really thinking about visiting Savannah, as well…just to visit and kick back for a while, and take a horse and buggy ride down memory lane, again. By the way to get to Savannah by car from here (ATL) takes 3 hours and 34 minutes (248.4 miles) according to Google maps directions, via I-75 S and I-16E. I know the High Speed Rail notion sounds selfish...but it isn't, when you study a map...the roads, the cumulative auto-travel-traffic-time (and don't let it rain), that it would take to travel any of the links by car. CAASL is inclusive and all the more so with the Augusta to Warner Robbins, GA Line tie-in. Topographers certainly can weigh-in.
Georgia's HSR truly can be a Georgia First. This is not a what’s in it for me project, but a what’s in it for the Peach State and all who live here and come to live, work, play and destination travel here long term.
To undertake the notion requires out of the box thinking. Think about the following:
The HSR cars themselves could be assembled in a retrofitted auto assembly; there is at least one manufacturing plant which could be so re-purposed, maybe two.
The proposed (meaning the inventions of this article) Augusta to Warner Robins Ga trek, could be used as the rail test facility, with the actual rail production build-out center located in Augusta.
The steel resources would come from the Great Lakes region, a revival of sorts for the once storied industry. Lake Superior is iron ore country, Lake Erie, home of all things steel ingenuity; my first real job was in a steel fabricating plant, in Mentor, Ohio.
Ship the steel up through the St. Lawrence Seaway, out to Sea, and down the Eastern Seaboard to the Port of Savannah, the fourth busiest ocean going seaport in the world. From their ship the rails up the Savannah to Augusta.
Fellow Georgians payoffs could include and not limited to: real jobs, jobs, jobs, communication, education, technological and infrastructure advancements, proficiency expansions; opportunities; an enriched life for generations to come.
The best case I can give of how rail made a profound difference in tapping resources imaginable and unimaginable, is the construction of the Transcontinental railroad (Transcontinental to mean roughly from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California... the Union Pacific westward build-out and the Central Pacific eastward build-out over what at the time some have described as an unfathomable “moonscape”). President Abraham Lincoln, a Republican is said by some to have borrowed the idea from rival Democrat Stephen Douglas, and commenced with the project...by all accounts his timing was bad, but the results unquestionably positive to this day. I am reminded there is never any time better than the present; NOW.
Georgia small banks (all) participate...in setting the bond structure...Georgia Businesses contributing as well. Georgia State Government clear the deck.
Policing policies for accountability will be absolutely necessary every-step of the way and fully enforced consequence for malfeasance every step of the way; with an adjudicating oversight committee in place where their meetings are scheduled and open to the public and press/media.
So, let the bickering begin...then the courage, then the plan, then the assignments, policies, time-tables....then the ......at some glorious point the thing. “Flowers are patient; they open slowly in the Sun.”
The I-85 bridge section reopened May 15, 2017. Still old habits die-hard:
Note: I authored an unsolicited white paper in early 1990 when I first became
a CNN Vice President, essentially saying AT&T, as well as other giant telephony companies around the world would eventually get into the multimedia enterprises...So.....that appears to be happening.
Before that...I left CBS to join then upstart CNN. They scratched their head. "Why in the world would you leave?" ... "To be a part of a ground floor adventure - to assist in charting a course I hoped," and clearly the rest is history.
In a job interview with the Provost of Indiana University, not unsolicited... but as part of the discovery-me process she asked where newspapers were headed with their online services; I told her Newspapers would eventually charge online users...she scoffed...yet it happened... No. I didn't get the job...I wasn't trying to be right, I answered the question.
Not a prophet, just stating the obvious...!!!
High Speed rail will come some day.
Some facts for consideration on which countries have the fastest High Speed Rail (HSP) trains:
China’s Shanghai Maglev, 267.8-mph
China’s Harmony CRH 380A 236.12-mph
Italy’s AGV Italo 223.6-mph
Spain’s Siemens Velaro E/AVS 103 217.4-mph
Spain’s Talgo 350 217.4-mph
Japan’s E5 Series Shinkansen Hayabusa 198.8-mph
France’s Alstrom Euroduplex 198.8-mph
France first introduced HSR to curb traffic grid-lock. Communities benefited, and of course now there’s cross border travel there, and it can be argued regional development was the by-product beyond Paris, and Lyon. There are for sure winners and there will remain the status quo. Still, Japan’s HSR system communicates efficiency, when you consider in 2015 over 365-million chose to ride the rail; so, efficiency is a national attitude...also efficiency contributes mightily in helping to achieve positive outcomes, and opportunities!