Nashville area commuter rail funds may be redirected to Katrina

WKRN.com
September 27, 2005

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Hurricane Katrina may sidetrack federal funds that local transit officials were expecting for the Music City Star, the commuter rail system to connect Nashville to surrounding counties.

The funds, a total of $6.2 million, may be on the chopping block now that Congress must bear the cost of clean up and reconstruction in the battered Gulf Coast.

However, construction on the rail system will begin this week as planned despite the uncertainty, according to Regional Transport Authority officials. A temporary bank loan, intended to allow officials to continue the project until federal funding came, was applied for in June but hasn't yet been secured.

"We're moving ahead with the full expectation that we're going to get the loan and we're going to get the appropriation," said William Farquhar, Music City Star commuter rail director.

Officials say the delay in funding could cause the rail system to push back the opening date of January for the first corridor between Nashville and Lebanon. There are seven planned corridors for the rail system.

According to RTA, the Music City Star will be funded 80 percent by federal funds, 10 percent through state dollars and 10 percent by local governments.

State Sen. Mark Norris, R-Colliersville, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, said that the amount of funding already invested in the project indicates that the $6.2 million will come through.

"The commuter rail project has been on somewhat of a fast track and has gotten a lot of support from congressional members from Middle Tennessee," Norris said. "There are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of projects nationwide that could be targeted, but it's too soon to say that that $6.2 million might be sacrificed."