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5 things to know about Chattanooga’s planned passenger rail

Staff photo by Abby White / Matt Sullivan, owner of Studio Groundworks, makes a graphic for topics discussed during the passenger rail panel. Thrive Regional Partnership held its Tri-State Summit, featuring a panel on passenger railway plans for Chattanooga, at the Chattanoogan Hotel on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024.
Staff photo by Abby White / Matt Sullivan, owner of Studio Groundworks, makes a graphic for topics discussed during the passenger rail panel. Thrive Regional Partnership held its Tri-State Summit, featuring a panel on passenger railway plans for Chattanooga, at the Chattanoogan Hotel on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. Staff photo by Abby White / Matt Sullivan, owner of Studio Groundworks, makes a graphic for topics discussed during the passenger rail panel. Thrive Regional Partnership held its Tri-State Summit, featuring a panel on passenger railway plans for Chattanooga, at the Chattanoogan Hotel on Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024.

Chattanooga, home of the Choo Choo, has been missing passenger train service for around 50 years.

But in the past year, the hope of catching a train from Track 29 has started to seem slightly less impossible.

City council members this week approved half a million in federal funding for consultants to look at how to design the proposed corridor, which would run from Memphis to Atlanta via Nashville and Chattanooga.

(READ MORE: Why can’t I take a train from Chattanooga to Nashville? Lawmakers are talking, but challenges run deep)

On Thursday, officials from the state, county and city governments talked at the Thrive Regional Partnership’s Tri-State Summit in Chattanooga about the process to restore passenger rail and what the end product could bring to the region.