Thursday, March 27, 2008
News Brain Train in peril?
Posted by Thomas Wheatley @thomaswheatley on Thu, Mar 27, 2008 at 2:38 PM
From the Savannah Morning News:
What hasn't been so easy is gathering the roughly $380 million to build the rail line to Athens, something the DOT board in August asked the department staff to pursue.Seven months later and with a new commissioner at the helm, DOT is facing a $7.7 billion funding shortfall and is asking cities to reconsider and prioritize projects that have not seen progress, said Crystal Paulk-Buchanan, DOT spokeswoman.
About $107 million may be available for the first three years of a route to Lovejoy, but no funding - for the Athens-Atlanta line - has been identified, Paulk-Buchanan said.
The federal government wants DOT to identify how much the project would cost over 20 years, and DOT has not begun looking at ways to divvy the cost, she said.
Opponents say that means the project is bound to show up in tax bills of the cities hosting the train. Rep. Steve Davis, R-McDonough, who voted against the resolution Tuesday, said it amounts to an unfunded mandate for the cities and counties it would roll through.
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