City Hall officials were none to happy, we’re told, when we detailed in April at least $16 million in federal funds, at least $3.5 million in state money and nearly $2 million in city funds that had been spent over the last quarter century for various rail proposals, none of which had legs.
On Tuesday, Chattanooga City Council members voted to use about $500,000 in federal funds for professional services that would suss out interest in a project that could link rail commuters in Chattanooga, Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis.
Although we prefer a much more limited use for federal funds in general, we’re glad the money didn’t come out of local coffers.
We’re all for progress, and if a study came back saying that travelers would ditch air and car travel for rail passenger service among the cities, we’d be the first to back it if it were cost efficient.
But we see two problems.