{"id":21104,"date":"2023-12-07T15:32:58","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T20:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/?post_type=press-releases&p=21104"},"modified":"2024-10-24T16:25:11","modified_gmt":"2024-10-24T20:25:11","slug":"senators-reverend-warnock-and-ossoff-announce-new-federal-funding-investments-in-georgia-passenger-rail","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/press-releases\/senators-reverend-warnock-and-ossoff-announce-new-federal-funding-investments-in-georgia-passenger-rail\/","title":{"rendered":"Sens. Ossoff, Rev. Warnock Announce New Federal Funding to Accelerate Georgia Passenger Rail"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Senators Reverend Warnock and Ossoff lauded the<\/em> distribution<\/em> of three Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded grants to help<\/em> create three new passenger rail<\/em> corridors<\/em> connecting cities across Georgia and<\/em> <\/em>other major Southeastern cities<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The three $500,000 federal awards from the Federal Rail Administration will explore creating new commercial passenger rail corridors from Atlanta to Savannah; from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC; and from Atlanta to Chattanooga and other major cities in TN<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Reverend Warnock<\/u>: \u201cCreating new transit options with routes connecting Atlanta to Savannah, Charlotte, Chattanooga, and cities in between would be a boon to our state and economy\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senator Ossoff<\/u>: \u201cThrough the bipartisan infrastructure law, Senator Warnock and I are accelerating progress toward passenger rail networks to serve Georgia and the Southeast region\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington, D.C.\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Today, U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), a member of the Senate Commerce & Transportation\u00a0committee, announced new federal awards to explore three new passenger rail corridors in Georgia. The grants are being distributed by the Federal Rail Administration, and are made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law championed by Senators Warnock and Ossoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The corridor identification grants, totaling $1.5 million, will fund efforts to explore three new passenger rail routes across Georgia and into neighboring states. When completed, these routes would provide additional public transit options between economic centers in the state like Savannah, Macon, Augusta, Athens and Atlanta, and provide Georgia residents with increased mobility options to reach some of the Southeast\u2019s largest cities, including Nashville, TN; Memphis, TN; Chattanooga, TN; and Charlotte, NC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCreating new transit options with routes connecting Atlanta to Savannah, Charlotte, Chattanooga, and cities in between would be a boon to our state and economy,\u201d said Senator Warnock.<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019m thrilled to announce new investments to explore three new passenger rail corridors in Georgia, and I\u2019m glad to work with Senator Ossoff to get this done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough the bipartisan infrastructure law, Senator Warnock and I are accelerating progress toward passenger rail networks to serve Georgia and the Southeast region. This is a long-term project that will require cooperation and strong execution at all levels of government, but it has the potential to unlock huge gains in mobility and quality of life for Georgians,\u201d Senator Ossoff said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a member of the Senate committee that covers rail policy, Senator Warnock has long been a champion for strengthening rail access and safety across Georgia, and has pushed for a potential Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis passenger rail corridor in a letter of support for the grant. In June 2023, Senator Warnock was joined by Senator Ossoff in announcing<\/a> $3.2 million in federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for projects in Chatham, DeKalb, and Gwinnett counties to improve mobility by eliminating railway-highway crossings and study construction alternatives to address safety, connectivity, and environmental sustainability. Additionally, earlier this year Senator Warnock successfully secured<\/a> Senate passage of two critical provisions in the Railway Safety Act of 2023<\/em> to address stalled trains trapping Atlanta residents in their neighborhood, and would update the grant program to provide additional support for projects that would eliminate crossings near schools, along school bus routes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since entering the Senate, Senator Ossoff has championed efforts to expand passenger rail across Georgia and the Southeast, driving economic growth and increasing mobility and connectivity. In March 2022, Senator Ossoff delivered<\/a> $8 million in Congressionally Directed Spending to the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) to begin the planning of a high-speed rail link between Atlanta and Savannah \u2014 the first significant investment in this long-desired rail corridor. This new $500,000 grant to GDOT through the bipartisan infrastructure law will accelerate the Atlanta-Savannah rail project into its Phase 2 Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the table below for more details on new passenger rail investments coming to Georgia:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GRANT<\/strong><\/td>CORRIDOR<\/strong><\/td>AGENCY<\/strong><\/td>IMPACTED STATES<\/strong><\/td>CITIES<\/strong><\/td>AMOUNT<\/strong><\/td>MORE INFO<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Fiscal Year 2022 Corridor Identification and Development Award<\/td>Atlanta to Savannah Corridor<\/td>Georgia Department of Transportation<\/td>GA: Georgia<\/td>GA: Atlanta, Macon, Savannah, Augusta, Athens<\/td>$         500,000<\/td>The proposed Corridor would connect Atlanta and Savannah, GA. The proposed Corridor would provide new service on existing or new alignment, with potential intermediate stops including Athens, Augusta and Macon, GA. The Corridor sponsor would enter Step 2 of the program and continue developing its service development plan that was funded through a previous FRA grant.<\/td><\/tr>
Fiscal Year 2022 Corridor Identification and Development Award<\/td>Charlotte, North Carolina to Atlanta, Georgia Corridor<\/td>North Carolina Department of Transportation<\/td>NC: North Carolina, SC: South Carolina, GA: Georgia<\/td>GA; SC; NC<\/td>$         500,000<\/td>The proposed Corridor would provide new service on a new high speed rail alignment between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA, with potential intermediate stops including Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and Augusta and Athens, GA, then serving a downtown Atlanta station and terminating at Atlanta\u2019s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world\u2019s busiest airport. The Corridor sponsor would enter Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.<\/td><\/tr>
Fiscal Year 2022 Corridor Identification and Development Award<\/td>Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis Corridor<\/td>City of Chattanooga<\/td>TN: Tennessee, GA: Georgia<\/td>GA: Atlanta; TN: Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis<\/td>$         500,000<\/td>The proposed Corridor would connect Atlanta, GA to Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis, TN. The proposed Corridor would provide new service on existing alignments. The Corridor sponsor would enter Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senators Reverend Warnock and Ossoff lauded the distribution of three Bipartisan Infrastructure Law-funded grants to help create three new passenger rail corridors connecting cities across Georgia and other major Southeastern cities The three $500,000 federal awards from the Federal Rail Administration will explore creating new commercial passenger rail corridors from Atlanta to Savannah; from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC; and from Atlanta to Chattanooga […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21104","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/21104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press-releases"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/21104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24774,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press_releases\/21104\/revisions\/24774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ossoff.senate.gov\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}