Amtrak Atlanta to Dallas Via Meridian Speedway

Arlington; Interesting about the ATL - Raleigh Piedmont mega region population & map. Cannot find any other similar location in the US except the NEC and maybe Texas ?. Do you have a population ratio of the two areas ? That ratio might give us a potential traffic RGH<>ATL ?

I don't have a good RGH-ATL forecast (presumably one is getting built into the SEHSR Tier 1 EIS - Record of Decision process now underway), but to get a relative sense of where trains work most people do a population/mile kind of calculation along a corridor. ATL-RGH really could also be done by summing up the air travel (two big hubs, CLT and ATL and several Southwest cities make a big deal). My other oldie-but-goodie source is the America 2050 site.

Back in the news (and topic "re-created"; sometimes I pull the "merge" trigger too quick):

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/ne ... /99830400/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Brief SNIPS:

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Amtrak service from Dallas currently stops in Marshall, Texas. The goal would be to connect passenger rail service from Meridian, Mississippi, through north Louisiana, which would link Dallas-Fort Worth all the way to Atlanta.
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Activity has been picking up in recent years, with studies administered by the East Texas Council of Governments and Northwest Louisiana Council of Governments, said Kent Rogers, executive director of NLCOG.

“Due to the success of these studies, Amtrak picked up the ball and took this project to the next level,” Rogers said. “In 2015, Amtrak carried out a feasibility study and determined that the I-20 Corridor long-distance passenger rail route is economically viable, and there will be no annual operating subsidy for the states through which the route traverses.”

Rogers said the immediate need is for Congress to fully fund Amtrak and to increase their funding. The BPPJ resolution also urges Gov. Edwards and Amtrak President Wick Moorman “to move with all deliberate speed to establish this transportation alternative.”

Regarding the service west of Meridian, along with the Baton Rouge-New Orleans corridor, Moorman expressed his thoughts in a letter to the Southern Rail Commission in early March.

“Amtrak strongly supports these projects and will continue to do everything we can to work with you to bring these services to completion,” he wrote.
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Much of the discussion upthread has focused on the Atlanta end of this proposal whereas most of the push seems to be from the Dallas/I-20 corridor end. There is also the question of where a route > 750miles (which a discrete Dallas-Atlanta route would be) fits in the PRIIA scheme of things.

If passenger service Meridian-Jackson is contemplated, and since CONO passes through Jackson, then what about routing Crescent through Jackson, where any meeting or joining/splitting for Texas could then take place? It would also bring Crescent into Baton Rouge's catchment, via the stop at Hammond. Running time would be longer of course, but if there were affordable ways of getting Jackson-New Orleans running speeds more competitive with driving times and drive down total Meridian-NOL times, that would benefit CONO also. The question is then whether the Southern Rail Commission would have a problem with the bypassed communities like Hattiesburg.

If Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi cooperated on a PRIIA service using Superliners over the existing TE route (so reinforcing those catchments) and onward to Shreveport, Ruston, Monroe Jackson and possibly Meridian, then that creates economies of scale at Fort Worth Amtrak maintenance since it will now have two based and one passing Superliner routes.