KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A new rail plan shows more options for future travel across Tennessee. And in some cases, you might be able to get to nearby states by train.
The Tennessee legislature requested a study from the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations last year and interstate traffic is a driving force. According to TACIR, traffic congestion is becoming more prominent throughout the state due to its success as a great place to live, work and play.
"It's a preliminary look to assess the potential for passenger rail and how that congestion would affect the quality of life [and] tourism," Cliff Lippard, executive director of TACIR, said.
However, funding is a huge barrier. The plan looks at other states that have added lines.
"Virginia and North Carolina have been doing this for quite a while," Joe Hultquist, CEO of Mobility and Development Coalition, said. "They've got a legal structure [and] funding mechanisms in place."
In some places in Tennessee, they can use existing lines, but for others, they will have to create new ones.
"I'd love to see it happen in some form or fashion, but it's going be a heavy lift, it's going to be the long haul approach," Hultquist said.
But there are more details to consider.
"With the existing lines, there are a lot of challenges there without spending hundreds of millions potentially billions of dollars in upgrading those lines," Hulquist said.
Mobility options open up many possibilities. Hulquist also mentioned that the biggest difference, when comparing North Carolina and Virginia, is that they have the money and structure in place, whereas Tennessee is starting with very little infrastructure.
"The travel benefits but then there's also the actual infrastructure itself," Lippard said. "The jobs at the stations and along the stations, you have a lot of potential for new retail residential housing."
This study puts Tennessee's future of commuting in the spotlight. TDOT has to do a more detailed study to answer all those questions about speed and have a more accurate picture of the cost.
For the state to upgrade existing tracks, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but to add new tracks, it would cost billions of dollars. This would require participation from several stakeholders like Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and bordering states.