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Bullet train study offers 3 routes to connect Chattanooga and Atlanta

In this Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016 photo, an Amtrak Acela train travels through Old Lyme, Conn. A plan to speed up Amtrak's high-speed rail corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., is welcomed by business commuters but finding its strongest opposition in some shoreline towns in Connecticut. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) In this Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2016 photo, an Amtrak Acela train travels through Old Lyme, Conn. A plan to speed up Amtrak's high-speed rail corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., is welcomed by business commuters but finding its strongest opposition in some shoreline towns in Connecticut. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)

By Mike Pare October 31, 2016 1 min read

Staff Photo by Dan Henry / The Chattanooga Times Free Press- 9/6/16. Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke stands in his office at the Chattanooga City Hall a few hours before kicking off his re-election campaign.

A draft study by the Georgia Department of Transporation offers three corridors to connect Chattanooga and Atlanta by high-speed rail.

The three include a route that runs along Interstate-75, another that runs parallel to U.S. Highway 411 though much of Northwest Georgia, and a third that goes through Rome, Ga.

A public hearing on the study is slated for Nov. 16 from 6-8 p.m. at the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency in the Development Resource Center on Market Street.

Rapid rail has been under study for nearly two decades, and Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said last year that while the idea might be neat, he doubts there is money or political will to build it.

“Any kind of intercity rail doesn’t happen without large-scale federal investment,” Berke said last year. “It’s pretty clear that the federal government is not in a position right now to do large-scale infrastructure investments.”