Jim Webster and Bill Steverson
What started at a 40-year-old poker night between two passenger train enthusiasts has become a full commitment to bring Amtrak service to Chattanooga.
Bill Steverson and Jim Webster spoke of their six-month journey to stir up local excitement and action around Amtrak at the Civitan Club meeting Friday.
“It would be good for the city to return to trains,” said Mr. Steverson.
He said that Amtrak will use its funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 to expand in the Southeast, and it has already identified a Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta route to be a top priority.
“They have never had so much money to expand in their history,” Mr. Webster said.
But Amtrak would require the state to “have some skin in the game,” probably 15 to 20 percent of the initial operating costs. With $400 million in economic impact the first year along the three-city corridor, Mr. Steverson and Mr. Webster want the Tennessee Department of Transportation to see the value.
Mr. Webster said state representatives Patsy Hazelwood, Greg Vital and Dan Howell opened the discussion with TDOT, whose support is essential to the project, as is support from the governor.
Mr. Webster clarified that Amtrak trains are not high-speed trains, a local subject that withered about 10 years ago.
“This is an entirely different animal,” he said.
Mr. Steverson said Amtrak could start service in as little as two or three years.
The trains would utilize existing freight track and be powered by diesel or electricity, giving them lower carbon emissions per person than cars or planes.
Mr. Steverson is the former communications director at McCallie School and Mr. Webster is a Chattanooga native who owns Continental Film.
“I know a lot of people and I’m not afraid to grab the phone,” Mr. Webster said.
The pair told the club that before they knew what was happening, they were live on a Zoom call with the Amtrak senior vice president of network development and senior vice president of planning and development, who had chosen the Choo-Choo Terminal Station to be the Zoom background photo.
Mr. Steverson and Mr. Webster said they are just two of many like-minded matchmakers who want to bring Tennessee and Amtrak together.
The two are on board with Mayor Tim Kelly’s recent public announcement of his own plans for Amtrak in Chattanooga, and the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce has listed passenger train service as a top priority, too.
Mr. Steverson said that Mayor Kelly is shouldering the jobs of obtaining a letter of interest from the state and a support letter from TDOT, required by Amtrak.
He said Mayor Kelley will focus on the Nashville-Chattanooga route first and tackle Atlanta later. In May, Chattanooga will apply to the Federal Railroad Administration to approve the route and undergo a federal risk assessment.
Mr. Steverson said he recently took the Crescent line from Birmingham to New Orleans, for $25.
“I didn’t have to take off my shoes once to go through security,” he said.
“I think this effort... can bring us together as a community and can bring us together as a state,” he said. Republicans, Democrats, young people, old people, “whoever you are,” he said, everyone he’s talked to wants passenger trains.
“Let’s put aside our differences and work together to get a passenger train,” he said.