Nashville Business Journal
Scott Harrison
Using CSX’s railroad tracks for commuter rail service isn’t on the table, the head of the Nashville and regional transit agencies said Thursday.
And that’s not only because the railroad won’t let local officials. Steve Bland, CEO of Nashville’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, said Thursday that his office has concluded commuter rail on CSX lines just won’t work.
“Even if they were to give us carte blanche, it would be tremendously unreliable service,” Bland said Thursday, as he presented three preliminary transit scenarios to the MTA board. “It would run on time today, two hours late tomorrow and not run the day after — depending on the freight traffic.”
In MTA’s nearly yearlong public outreach to introduce a regional transit plan, Bland said many questions have sounded a lot like this: “‘Why don’t you run your trains on CSX corridors? It’s the perfect map.”
Bland admitted CSX’s routes fall into place perfectly where the Middle Tennessee region is facing the worst of its traffic congestion.
