S.C. riding historic rails to high-speed transportation system

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

Page 2 of 2 High-speed system A recent commuter rail study commissioned by the Central Midlands Council of Governments projects a 43% jump in population in Richland and Lexington counties between 2000 and 2035, bringing the total area population to in excess of 840,000. Moving that population to and from work and across a metropolitan corridor that also is expanding is now on the governmental radar with several regional agencies looking at the feasibility of developing “brownfields”—abandoned or underused industrial sites that might be contaminated but can be cleaned up—for future commuter rail stations in South Carolina’s Midlands. “There are several old industrial sites, and some of them could possibility be contaminated, that have relationships to existing rail lines,” said Reginald Simmons, Central Midlands’ transportation director. “We’re seeing about redeveloping those, but it’s still very early in the process.” The Central Midlands Council of Governments has identified 22 potential rail station sites that could serve the future commuter rail and high-speed transit lines running from Columbia to Newberry, Columbia to Camden and Columbia to Batesburg-Leesville. And the Newberry line could be extended as far as Greenville. Commuter rail is a piece of the bigger picture of a proposed high-speed transit system that will cross several state lines. A memorandum of understanding was developed in 2004 between North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia for an operational capacity study of the Norfolk Southern/Amtrak corridor. A SCDOT study is looking at the feasibility of the Charlotte-to-Atlanta high-speed rail corridor, and has established an Upstate High-Speed Rail task force to determine the level of support for implementation of the corridor and to identify potential sources of funding. Projections for a Charlotte-to-Atlanta route indicate that six trains per day would transport a million riders annually at an estimated capital cost of between $1.5 and $2 billion. Some financial models show the system quickly becoming self-supporting with fares paying for operational costs. Assuming the high costs do not derail the high-speed project, the Midlands commuter rail systems could provide feeders into the high-speed system. Finding the funds “We’re getting our ducks in a row to participate in the Small Starts program with the Federal Transit Administration,” Simmons said. The Small Starts program provides grants for capital costs associated with new “fixed guideway systems, extensions and bus corridor improvements.” Amounts requested must be less than $75 million in new starts funds, and the total project costs must be less than $250 million. Simmons said Central Midlands also is looking into a grants program offered by the Department of Health and Environmental Control for environmental assessments to determine what problems exists, if any, and ways to solve those problems. With the high cost of building commuter rail—$80 million or more for one line—public-private partnerships, along with federal and state grants available to redevelop the brownfields, could make paying for the project easier. There are more than 120 brownfields in the Columbia metro area, according to DHEC, and some sites already have been redeveloped or are slated for development. “We just have to concentrate on our next steps: encouraging the communities, assisting development as part of local process and investigating potential rail station sites,” Simmons said. << Start < Prev 1 2 Next > End >>