No surprise that NS is refusing to allow passenger traffic on its lines running south out of Atlanta. Most major cities in the US have a form of commuter rail, but it appears that the topography surrounding Atlanta combined with dense development along existing tracks will not allow easy expansion of rail corridors. Is Atlanta unique in being shut out of commuter rail?
Detroit and Milwaukee are a couple of other cities without commuter rail. (They do have short downtown trolleys.)
Detroit and Milwaukee each previously had minimal suburban service on one route only and neither line had great patronage. Pittsburgh had a similar situation.
The biggest problem for commuter rail is on the north side of Atlanta, The Howell CP which is an at grade crossing of NS and CSX. 5 lines of NS and 6 lines of CSX eventually all feed thru that CP. Needs a complicated fllyover that would also benefit Amtrak as well. But there is absolutely no political will oto do anything.
I'm of the opinion that a big part of the problem is the commuter rail guys don't know how to negotiate with the freight railroads. It's because they fail to understand how the freight RRs think and what it is they are really asking for.
The Atlanta terminal area is a real problem, but you don't need a whole separate line outside of that.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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