Georgia lawmakers in the House Transportation Committee passed a bill Thursday that could create a commuter rail from Atlanta to Athens, the committee chairman said.

“We’re working on a statewide transportation funding package,” Rep. Vance Smith (R-Pine Mountain), chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said in a phone interview Friday with The Red & Black.

Smith, sponsor of House Bill 277, said the bill will go before the House Rules Committee, then to the House floor for debate. He said it could be on the floor by Thursday, but “it may not happen that quick.”

“It may be [next week], depending on what is scheduled and what the Speaker and Majority Leader have planned,” he said.

One of the projects outlined in HB 277 is a program to pay for all or part of the costs associated with planning, surveying, constructing and operating a commuter rail line from Atlanta to Athens.

The proposed funding for the rail will come from House Resolution 206, a constitutional amendment “saying we’d like to improve transportation by imposing an additional one cent sales tax statewide,” Smith said.

Georgia voters would make the decision by voting for or against HR 206 at the polls in November 2010. The proposed one-cent statewide sales tax would go toward all 24 of the projects outlined in HB 277, including the provision for the Atlanta to Athens rail.

Some students may remember the Georgia Brain Train Group, an organization formed in 2006 in support of a rail linking colleges and businesses from Atlanta to Athens.

Emory Morsberger, former chairman for the Brain Train, said in a Feb. 9 phone interview the proposed House bill includes a version of the Brain Train that has been in the works for years. He said the process has been “slow, but sure.”

The Georgia House and Senate have worked jointly since 2007 to assess the transportation needs across the state, said Rep. Smith. He said the House Transportation Committee came together last summer to develop a list of projects, included in HB 277, which would benefit the state and its individual counties.

But if the bill passes on the House Floor, it may be a while before the Athens Multi Modal Center – where the Athens transit system operates from – houses a rail linking it to Atlanta.

Smith explained that under HB 277, the state would work with CSX Corporation – a transportation company that provides rail services – to build the commuter rail, but there is not yet a clear timetable set.

“This legislation has a 10-year sunset,” he said. “It would just be a matter of working with CSX and hopefully within that 10-year window [construction would begin].”

Smith said he was unsure if the rail would be completed within 10 years, but he is concerned with securing funds for the $350 million to $400 million project.

“Right now there’s just no funds out there, and that’s the reason we’re looking at a statewide package,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is promote the funding part so we can have a line [to Athens] in the near future.”