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Connecting the DOTs of rail service in the state
By Shelia Watson
Contributing Writer
Commuter rail is one piece of the bigger picture of rail service in the United States, which includes high-speed rail that will cross several state lines, a situation that will necessitate discussion and coordination among several states’ departments of transportation.
South Carolina is already participating in such discussions. 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.
The study is the second phase of looking at the feasibility of a Charlotte-to-Atlanta high-speed rail corridor that would be part of the designated Southeastern High-Speed Rail Corridor that would eventually extend from Washington, D.C., to Jacksonville, Fla.
The S.C. Department of Transportation established an Upstate High-Speed Rail task force to determine the level of support for implementation of the UHSR Corridor; to identify potential sources of funding for implementation of the corridor, including funding for studies as well as construction funds; and to provide input to the SCDOT and to the consultants performing the studies related to the UHSR Corridor.
A recent meeting hosted by the SCDOT gave rail stakeholders an opportunity to share issues, concerns, plans, ideas and suggestions.
Jim Daniels, special assistant in the SCDOT’s Mass Transit Department, said although most of the meeting concerned freight, there was a lot of discussion about passenger rail.
“The high-speed rail from Charlotte to Atlanta would have three stops in South Carolina, in Spartanburg, Greenville and Clemson,” he said. “It’s an impressive plan and, as with a lot of plans, funding is the major holdup. But I think there’s good reason to expect to see it happen in a reasonable time frame.”
Daniels said projections for a Charlotte-to-Atlanta route, running six trains per day, are for about a million riders annually.
Capital costs are estimated at between $1.5 and $2 billion. Running at speeds ranging from 110 mph to 200 mph, high-speed rail requires a sealed corridor, which means laying new track and dealing with right-of-way issues, components that are not cheap. However, Daniels said there is hope for substantial federal support with the balance split between the three states.
“The price tag for our state may end up being in the $60-, $70-, $80-million range,” Daniels said. “But compare that with the $15 billion spent on the “Big Dig” in Boston, which has turned out to be a disaster.”
Some financial models show the system quickly becoming self-supporting, with fares paying for operational costs.
Daniels said the ideal rail system would have a high-speed system running interstate with local commuter systems feeding into it. Besides the recent Charleston Area Regional Transportation Authority’s study, several other regions across the state are looking into the possibility of commuter systems.
A major investment study was launched to study the feasibility of commuter rail service and express bus service between the Charlotte metropolitan region and the Rock Hill urbanized area. More than 28,000 commuters move daily between Rock Hill, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C., and that number is projected to increase to between 45,000 and 50,000 by 2020.
The Central Midlands Council of Governments has just finished a study looking at three options: Camden to Columbia, Newberry to Columbia or Batesburg-Leesville to Columbia.
Anderson is looking at establishing rail to Seneca with stops at Pendleton, the Clemson campus and other areas.
Daniels admitted that getting people to use the system may require something of a cultural shift.
“We’ve shaped our culture around the automobile,” he explained. “We like the freedom and flexibility of having our cars and being able to come and go as we please.”
Nevertheless, he said, there are successful examples to follow. Most European countries use high-speed rail. Japan too has an impressive high-speed passenger rail system.
“We may be the only developed country in the world that doesn’t have a good passenger rail system,” said Daniels.
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