Selected High Speed Rail Line Skirts Oconee County

The Federal Railroad Administration and the Georgia Department of Transportation have chosen a route for high speed rail linking Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., that passes through Athens, rejecting two alternate routes that bypassed the area.

The proposed 274-mile route will be fully separated from the existing roadway and railroad transportation systems, and it will be on a new dedicated right of way for most of its distance.

The route does not pass through Oconee County, but the inclusion of Athens as a “station opportunity” would provide potential rail links for the area with downtown Atlanta and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

In an announcement of the decision, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) said that exact alignment configurations and station locations have not been determined.

The Atlanta to Charlotte corridor is an extension of the Southeast High-Speed Rail corridor, as designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation, according to the web announcement on July 9.

The Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) corridor will connect Atlanta with Washington, D.C., and, via the Northeast Corridor, with Boston.

“Funding to build this part of the SEHSR has not yet been fully identified,” according to the announcement.

For more on the story, please go to Oconee County Observations.