Passenger rail in Tennessee rolled further down the line Wednesday as the federal government announced a $500,000 grant to help leaders here begin planning a statewide line.
In 2022, the Tennessee General Assembly asked the state-housed Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) to begin studying “the potential for passenger rail service linking the major cities in each of the Grand Divisions of the state.”
In March, mayors of Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, and Atlanta submitted a proposal to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) for a passenger line to connect those cities.
In July, TACIR’s 139-page report recommended a statewide rail plan. It said the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) should submit the report to support the cities’ application.
This week, the cities were awarded a $500,000 grant from the FRA, a move announced Wednesday by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) on X.
Passenger rail service linking Tennessee’s major cities will be a major economic shot in the arm and will invigorate travel and tourism across our state.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen
This is a very big deal.
“Passenger rail service linking Tennessee’s major cities will be a major economic shot in the arm and will invigorate travel and tourism across our state,” Cohen said in a statement. “I was pleased to submit a letter of support for this project and am glad that the FRA has heeded my repeated calls to prioritize this important project.
“Once this service is in operation, much of the country will be accessible by rail from Memphis. This is a very big deal, and I look forward to working with stakeholders in all of the route’s proposed cities to continue to move this project forward.”
The funds are from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for the federal Corridor ID program to build a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects ready for implementation. With the funds in hand, Tennessee leaders can lay the groundwork for an overall plan, a process that includes a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for a Tennessee passenger rail line.
TACIR’s report recommended five rail routes built in five phases. The first would connect Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Nashville.
The next would connect Memphis and Nashville.
The third-priority line would connect Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Bristol in East Tennessee. Another line would improve the connectivity between Memphis and Chicago. The final recommendation would connect Nashville to Louisville, Kentucky.
These lines were prioritized based on the amounts of people they could move. For this, Atlanta, Chattanooga, and Nashville came first. Memphis and Nashville came second.
“The route would connect Tennessee’s two largest cities, and connecting areas with large populations is often a key to success for passenger rail projects, although neither of these cities has as many people as Atlanta,” reads the TACIR report.
TACIR’s plan would create a new rail division within the state, likely housed in TDOT. Doing this (and myriad other things necessary for such an undertaking) will need state money and that means vetting and votes from the Tennessee General Assembly.
So far, rail plans here have vocal support from Tennessee Democrats and at least one Senate GOP member. The bill directing TACIR to study rail here was sponsored by Sen. Ken Yager, a Republican from the far-east corner of Tennessee (Bristol), and Rep. Antonio Parkinson, a Democrat from the far-west corner (Memphis). Rail could help both of those cities bring in people and their money.
Rail action could likely see the floors of the Tennessee state House and Senate in its next session in January. Parkinson said that any rail idea would also need buy-in from Gov. Bill Lee’s office.
As for federal support, Cohen gave a mantra to U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in September.
“Memphis is the center of the country,” Cohen said. “We’ve got the bridge that goes across the Mississippi River. We’ve got commercial aviation. We’ve got FedEx. What’s good for Memphis is good for America.”
