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Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2008

Macon man has novel idea for passenger rail service

A Macon man with a track record for innovation is pitching an unusual idea to politicians and officials making plans for a commuter rail line from Atlanta to Griffin and, eventually, Macon.

Robert Green, who previously worked on an underground imaging system, wants Georgia to build a train alongside Interstate 75. He wants it to pick up passengers and drop them off at stations along the way, but he doesn't want the train to stop.

Instead, the train would slow down so that cabooses could uncouple and shift to a secondary track to drop off people. Another caboose would catch up with the train to let people on.

The whole thing would function much like the interstate itself, with entrance and exit ramps for train cars. Green said it would solve one of the biggest problems facing existing commuter rail plans: the time it takes to make the trip.

State officials labelled the idea interesting, even if it's completely untested and potentially a monstrous expense. They're moving ahead with plans to use existing rail lines to shuttle people between Griffin and Atlanta, a long-discussed plan that won the support of Gov. Sonny Perdue this year as gas prices jumped to $4 a gallon.

"I think that is a novel idea and might be the way to speed things up," said former state Rep. Larry Walker, who represents the Macon area on the Georgia Department of Transportation board. "I don't know of anywhere in the world that's being done."

Building some type of train in the interstate median is an idea that's been discussed many times during the years, Walker said, but the first problem, among several, is the cost.

"It's not conducive, the way it's constructed, for trains," he said. "(The costs) are just horrendous. And that's why we are, frankly, using old technology."

That technology consists of existing heavy rail lines and trains converted for passenger travel to and from Atlanta. The trip from Macon, which is not yet on the approved route but would be part of an assumed extension south from Griffin, would take more than 2 hours, according to the DOT.

Green said he's had a mathematician model the concept and that it can go from Macon to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in south Atlanta in 55 minutes.

And he questions any contention that the cost is prohibitive.

"We own the land," he said. "And the existing (rail) systems are not really convenient. ... Ninety-five percent of the system, I could go buy off the shelf now."

Green is a general contractor by trade, but he's also co-founder of Witten Technologies. He took an underground imaging system used to find dinosaur bones and helped turn it into a tool for the construction industry.

The Computer Assisted Radar Tomography, or CART, can basically see underground, and it has been used to map the World Trade Center cleanup site. The project received an honorable mention in The Wall Street Journal's global Technology Innovation Awards in 2004 and topped all entries in the software category.

Green has pitched his idea to Perdue's office and, more recently, U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson's staff. Isakson recently came out in favor of changing the way America looks at rail and for finding funding for a high-speed passenger rail line from Birmingham, Ala., to Washington, D.C., that would run through Atlanta.

Green met with an Isakson field representative last month, and Isakson's office is compiling information about his idea, the senator's press secretary said.

A DOT spokesman called Green's idea "an intriguing concept" with "several aspects that would require some further analysis."

For now, the state is moving ahead with traditional passenger rail service from Atlanta to Griffin, a portion for which it already has secured federal funding.

"I want to see people seriously weigh this concept," Green said.

To contact writer Travis Fain, call 744-4213.