A piece of Atlanta history is that it wasn’t always called Atlanta; it was previously called Marthasville, and before that, Terminus — a name that derived from the geographic location being the terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad line.
That history is relevant today as the city explores numerous options to return to its roots as a railroad hub. For years, Atlantans have heard of studies that would look into the feasibility of a railroad connecting one city to another.
Today, multiple proposals are gaining traction that would link Atlanta to other cities in the state and the country at large: the Intercity Passenger Rail Project, the Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan and the Sunbelt Atlantic Connector. But will these studies ever become wheels on tracks?
In late 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) awarded three grants for these three corridors, $500,000 each, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that was signed into law by former president Biden in November 2021.
Below are the three biggest studies and their latest status, as of July 2026.
1. The Intercity Passenger Rail Project (Atlanta to Savannah)
Status: Technical analysis and alternative route studies are underway.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) writes “work is ongoing, including a detailed technical analysis, coordination with partners, and ongoing review of potential alternatives.” Public meetings for feedback have been collected throughout 2025, gathering insight on Georgians’ preferences on certain routes and key stops like Macon, Athens and Augusta. The study is set to continue through the late 2020s, at which point an environmental impact statement would be prepared if viable.
The Atlanta-Savannah corridor has long been sought out by transit enthusiasts. As two of the most important cities in the state (both having served as a current or previous capital of the state), as well as two cities in the top-five most populous cities in Georgia (and top three by metro areas), the railway corridor would be a useful alternative linking inner-Georgia with the coast and could potentially reduce the trip to as low as 2.5 to 3 hours, as a survey from GDOT asked.
Aside from Atlanta and Savannah, the study area includes the cities of Athens, Statesboro, Milledgeville, Macon, Augusta, among other smaller cities.
On July 6, GDOT opened a period of public comment that will remain open until August 6, 2026. Those interested can submit feedback, including how much you would be willing to pay for a ticket, here.
GDOT previously held a feedback survey in Spring 2025, with 5,151 total reported responses.
Next steps would include financial planning and deciding governance of the service.
2. Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor (SEHSR) & the Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan (PRCIP)
Status: Preferred corridor route selected; formal federal planning stage ahead of a Tier II EIS.
The Atlanta to Charlotte connection would be a major interconnection for the Southeast region. Of the three corridors highlighted, this is the furthest along, and it’s designed as part of the larger Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) network, which would ultimately connect to Washington, D.C., linking there with the Northeast Corridor rail network that stretches from Washington, D.C. to Boston.
The SEHSR is “one of the five original high-speed rail corridors designated by USDOT.” A Tier I environmental impact statement (EIS) was completed in 2002 and released by the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Highway Administration, studying the corridor between Charlotte and Washington, D.C. In 2017, a Tier II Record of Decision (ROD) was issued for the Raleigh to Richmond, VA segment. NCDOT also completed a number of Tier II studies for the section of the corridor. Two years later in 2019, both a Tier II EIS and a ROD were issued for the Richmond to Washington D.C. section.
Because potentially expanding this corridor to include Atlanta and and other cities further south was added on later, this section of the corridor followed its own timeline of development. In 2013, studies explored multiple expanded corridor options, including Atlanta, becoming the Atlanta to Charlotte Passenger Rail Corridor Investment Plan (PRCIP). Initially, six corridor alternatives were explored as options in an Alternatives Development Report. In 2019, a Draft EIS was published for public feedback that explored three of the six strongest corridor alternative candidates, and in July 2021 a final combined EIS and ROD was published in the Environmental Protection Agency Federal Register with the selection of the Greenfield Corridor as the preferred corridor alternative.
The combined EIS and ROD document stated that the average automobile trip time between Atlanta and Charlotte is about 3 hours and 45 minutes via I-85, or 4 hours and 43 minutes via I-20 and I-77; that number is about 5 hours and 15 minutes for bus travel and the Amtrak Crescent, according to the document. The Greenfield Corridor is estimated to cut that ground travel time to 2 hours and 6 minutes to 2 hours and 44 minutes, which would make it the fastest method of transportation between the cities aside from air travel, which takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes of direct air travel, but does not include time at an airport or onboarding or offboarding.
The federal permits performance dashboard states that the PRCIP’s “environmental review and permitting are complete” as of July 2021. GDOT’s website states that the project “is now a part of the FRA Corridor ID program and being managed by the North Carolina DOT Corridor Identification & Development Program,” and that “Georgia has minimal involvement at this time.”
Next steps would be an EIS Tier II, which would conceivably solidify details like railway and station sites.
3. Sunbelt Atlantic Connector (Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville-Memphis)
Status: Local leadership across multiple stakeholder cities championing for possible studies.
The project is being championed by a group called the Sunbelt Atlantic Railway Coalition, who are pushing a regional passenger rail initiative called the Sunbelt Atlantic Connector that would link Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis.
Advocates say that this line would provide a critical link between Atlanta and Chattanooga; moreover, it would help open these cities to existing passenger rail routes like the Crescent Route (New York-New Orleans) and the City of New Orleans Route (Chicago-New Orleans).
The City of Chattanooga is listed as the lead agency for the project, with a number of stakeholders who are already on board: the cities of Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis along with the State of Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), GDOT, the Hamilton County Railroad Authority, the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Metropolitan Planning Organization (Lead Partner), the Greater Dalton Metropolitan Planning Organization (GDMPO), the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC), the Greater Nashville Regional Council (GNRC/MPO) and the Memphis Metropolitan Planning Organization (Memphis MPO).
The group says the connection would be standard passenger rail, not high speed rail, and use existing infrastructure where possible. The project received letters of support from a number of local leaders across the two states back in 2023, including Georgia’s Sen. Raphael Warnock and Rep. Nikema Williams, Atlanta’s Mayor Andre Dickens, Chattanooga’s Mayor Tim Kelly, Memphis’ Mayor Jim Strickland, Nashville’s Mayor John Cooper, Tennessee’s Rep. Steve Cohen and Rep. Chuck Fleischmann from the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively.
The Sunbelt Atlantic Railway Coalition says it has been accepted into the Federal Railway Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development (Corridor ID) Program, a “comprehensive intercity passenger rail planning and development program [that] has awarded this project a $500,000 grant to develop the scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing a service development plan (SDP) for our Corridor.”
Interest in the corridor traces back to Georgia’s 1997 Intercity Rail Plan, which called for further study — a process that didn’t conclude until FRA issued a Final EIS and ROD in 2017, selecting the I-75 corridor as the preferred route.
Amtrak has expressed interest in operating within the Nashville-Chattanooga-Atlanta corridor, releasing a preliminary analysis in 2023 of a version of the corridor that detailed two planned round-trips daily and a 2035 projected annual ridership of 117,000 riders for the corridor.
Next steps include working with contractors to develop an economic analysis of the corridor, refine an organizational governance between all stakeholders of the project and “establish a scope, schedule, and budget for the Service Development Plan.” After these are completed, referred to as “Step I”, the project can move on to Step II: creation of the Service Development Plan and public engagement.
According to the project website, Step I activities were planned to be completed and sent to the FRA for review in Spring of this year; Saporta Report will update this article if a response from the group about the status of activities is received.
Looking ahead
While the timelines and development of each of these rail projects remain in flux, the City of Atlanta has signaled it is planning on having passenger rail as part of its future, hopefully stopping in a brand new, 21st-century station.
Atlanta has proposed a new Amtrak station that would replace the current one that was originally built in 1918 and located near Midtown but with no MARTA connection. The Atlanta Regional Commission writes that the current station is “too small, there are few services nearby, located about a mile from the nearest MARTA rail station, and it’s not ADA-compliant.” It also cites increasing ridership as a justification for the new station proposal.
Amtrak currently serves Atlanta via its Crescent Line, with one train northbound and one train southbound passing through each day.
The new station potential designs have already solicited feedback from the public. Officials are hoping that a new Amtrak station can be located somewhere in Downtown and connect easily with MARTA.
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