Light rail could be game-changer
Sometimes going back to the future makes much more sense than staying where we are.
Looking at ways to improve public mass transportation in Chattanooga makes sense. What remains to be seen is how we get to that improvement.
Chattanooga’s city government is seeking a $400,000 federal grant to help prepare a $700,000 study of how we get there by using 21 miles of existing freight rail lines for a 23-mile passenger rail service to carry core city residents and workers to and from jobs and shopping areas and recreation and other city hubs of tomorrow.
Those other city hubs are the things that will develop when it’s easy, cheap and opportune to get to them. That’s a bit what happened when the Tennessee Aquarium was built and became a Chattanooga riverfront game-changer more than 20 years ago.
A light rail can be a boon to local businesses, spurring new shops and residential areas and opportunities around each stop as it also connects neighborhoods to jobs.