In a follow-up to the discussion here months ago about the idea of light rail in Chattanooga, lo and behold the City now seems to be at least studying the possibility.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2...al-light-rail/
Quote:
The plan is still in its infancy, but City Transportation Director Blythe Bailey said the rail service could largely use existing rail lines, which run to the downtown Chattanooga Choo Choo site, to the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport and to Enterprise South. Lines are currently in place along Holtzclaw, which could help connect Bushtown, Avondale, Orchard Knob and other neighborhoods to both downtown and to job sites like the Volkwagen plant or Amazon plant.
"It's really a matter of connecting the dots," Bailey said. "A lot of the infrastructure, because of our history, is already there."
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Meanwhile, an article on another local news site mentions how the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum would like to make a more seamless connection to the Chattanooga Choo Choo facility, where there is talk of building a new "Multimodel Transit Center". It sounds to me like the Choo Choo site (where the last passenger trains actually stopped at in the '70s) could soon once again be the hub to both intracity and tourist train travel. It seems like such a no-brainer, with so much existing infrastructure from the days when trains literally criss-crossed the City.
Here's a map of the proposed light-rail routes. There would seemingly be opportunities, based on the existing rails, to eventually extend service to the northern suburb of Hixson or the eastern suburb of Ooltewah.
