BusinessTN

Last year, the U.S. Department of Transportation granted the city of Atlanta $1 million to study ways to increase capacity at five-runway Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, the nation's busiest passenger airport. One option? Build a second airport. The projected cost? In the billions of dollars.

Two hours to the north—or less considering Atlanta's burgeoning northern suburbs—lies another airport that is currently under-capacity with room to grow. Chattanooga Metro-politan Airport currently has just one main runway but plenty of land for expansion.

At the time of the USDOT's action, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters stated publicly that in addition to building new airports and expanding existing airfields, growing communities like Atlanta also needed to consider taking greater advantage of smaller regional airports to meet the growing demand for air travel.

It all begs the question: Could Hartsfield-Jackson be linked with Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport? And if so, how?

Up, Up and Away

Established in 2003, Chattanooga's private, nonprofit Enterprise Center was formed to house the city's new economic development and job growth, but it quickly expanded to include advanced technology projects for job creation. Today, the Enterprise Center both coordinates and oversees numerous federal and regionally funded projects, many of which have a technology focus.

Joe Ferguson, director of special projects for the Enterprise Center in Chattanooga, oversees the city's maglev train initiative. Short for "magnetic levitation," maglev technology is defined as advanced passenger and freight technology in which electronics and magnetic forces lift, guide and propel a train over a guideway, or elevated track, at speeds as high as 300 miles per hour.

Until recently, maglev was easy to write off as futuristic, pie-in-the-sky transportation planning, mainly due to cost. A study by the Atlanta Regional Commission concluded that maglev would cost $25 million to $35 million per mile (making a 100-mile stretch between the two cities a $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion proposition). Estimates from earlier studies are even higher—$4.5 billion.

Consequently, the idea for maglev service between Atlanta and Chattanooga has until recently been relegated to the sidelines in urban planning and transportation discussions in the ever-more congested South. As a maglev proponent, Ferguson has faced an uphill climb, struggling to get regional and national leaders to listen. But now that the nation is beginning to feel the weight of more limited mobility, Ferguson and other maglev backers have points that cannot be ignored.

Consider the following:

• Tennessee's interstate highway system is significantly over capacity in terms of commercial freight traffic and little new construction is underway. Interstate safety has become a heightened concern.
• Commercial airlines are in crisis. Many small- and medium-sized cities could lose some or all of their commercial airline service if fuel prices continue to climb. Air travel costs are skyrocketing while available flights and connections are shrinking.
• Gas prices are projected by some to reach $5 per gallon in America. Meanwhile, the country is actively seeking ways to reduce dependency on foreign oil.
• Maglev technology uses electric power and has zero emissions. If the grid is fed by nuclear power, the entire system becomes emissions-free and environmentally friendly—a key consideration in decision-making in the current era. The guideway requires very little land for building the dedicated right-of-way with no grade crossings.

Ferguson agrees, however, that the continued dynamic growth of the Atlanta area northward through Northwest Georgia to Chattanooga is the key driving force behind the need for true high-speed ground transportation in the South. "Atlanta to Chattanooga is the real linchpin for the maglev project in the Southeast because of the enormous growth of the two cities," he says. "Connecting the airports with a maglev system is a solid solution to the mobility problem the area is facing."

And, he says, cynics who have long marginalized maglev as a potential solution due to its high construction costs now have perspective when considering the alternative: the multibillion-dollar price of constructing a second Atlanta airport, not to mention the cost to build additional highway infrastructure.

Plan of Action

So what's happening to make maglev a reality? An $8 million study of a potential rail system between the Chattanooga and Atlanta airports, including the environmental impact study and preliminary engineering, is currently underway. A second multimillion-dollar study has also recently been completed to consider the feasibility of maglev rail service connecting Chattanooga and Nashville, with implications for further expansion. That study proposed a maglev guideway following the I-24, linking Chattanooga and Nashville at each city's major airport and city center.

What has been the public reaction to these most recent announcements? "Public response is extremely positive, as well as optimistic reactions from city governments," says Ferguson, who has traveled the region to present the information to interested parties. "There has been a change in attitude in the last six months, regionally as well as nationally, regarding high-speed ground transportation, and we are fortunate to receive great support from Congressman Wamp and Senators Corker and Alexander."

Still, not everyone agrees that maglev is the proper solution. Benita M. Dodd, vice president of the Atlanta-based Georgia Public Policy Foundation, says proponents of maglev are merely "romancing the rail." According to Dodd, other transportation priorities, including alleviating traffic congestion in Atlanta and the city's intermodal freight challenges, far outweigh the need for maglev to Chattanooga.

"We believe maglev is an exciting opportunity, but it has to be really low on the priority list when we have so many other needs," Dodd says. "The resources are just not available." Dodd adds that in places around the world where maglev has worked there were not the same challenges that exist for maglev technology in America. "You can study until the cows come home," Dodd insists, "but we're not China; we don't have unlimited cheap labor and lax environmental regulations. It's a pipe dream." Dodd also argues that in-state options exist if Atlanta does indeed need a satellite airport, specifically mentioning a former Lockheed Martin property in Dawsonville that's already owned by the city of Atlanta.

Ferguson submits that the few naysayers he encounters typically have never been on a maglev train—or, for that matter, any high-speed train. The Enterprise Center provided the opportunity for decision makers to have the maglev experience by offering a tour of the commercial maglev train in Shanghai, China. The Shanghai operation, which travels 20 miles in less than eight minutes at a top speed of 270 mph, has a four-year on-time efficiency of 99.98%, and its fare revenue is now covering operating and maintenance costs. Attendees in 2007 included Chattanooga Airport Manager Mike Landguth and Tom Jensen, the chairman of the National Safe Skies Alliance. Attendees for the second trip in April 2008 included Murfreesboro Mayor Tommy Bragg; Eddie Davidson Nashville's director of intergovernmental affairs; Bill Barnes, Nashville MTA vice chairman of the board; Melissa Taylor, director of the Chattanooga/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization; CARTA board member John Lively; and Wayne Cropp, CEO and president of the Enterprise Center. An additional trip is scheduled in 2008.

To Atlanta...and Beyond

Other projects nationwide are also taking shape. For instance, President Bush recently signed a transportation bill that included $90 million for maglev projects. The bill will help fund, among other endeavors, an environmental study regarding a maglev train between Anaheim, Calif., and Las Vegas.

While the Enterprise Center is focused on the Atlanta to Chattanooga to Nashville corridor, future expansion of the proposed rail to other parts of the country could portend significant economic development for Tennessee cities along its proposed path. "Our larger vision is that the project would continue southward to Macon to Savannah, where it would connect with the East Coast high-speed rail corridor. The extension north would travel through the Nashville airport to downtown Nashville, farther northward to Indianapolis, and up to Chicago, thereby connecting the two largest airports in the U.S.—Atlanta and Chicago," Ferguson states.

No doubt, even if it takes decades for a maglev train to come to fruition, a high-speed ground transportation option running from Chicago, through Chattanooga, and on to Atlanta and beyond would be a boon for the entire region.