Oconee to miss out on high-speed rail– new report

A preferred route for high-speed rail service in the future would bypass Oconee County, and a former Seneca councilman says that’s a disappointment.  According to an article in the Toccoa (Georgia) Record, a newly-released report from the Federal Railroad Administration depicts high-speed passenger service between the Atlanta and Greenville-Spartanburg airports on a route that would include stops in Anderson, South Carolina and Athens, Georgia.  The current Norfolk Southern line that passes through Oconee County between Clemson, South Carolina and Toccoa, Georgia carries mostly freight service.  Former Seneca councilman Ernest Riley says it’s disappointing considering that Oconee County sits in the Atlanta-Charlotte corridor.  Riley serves on the board of the regional government service agency South Carolina Appalachian Council of Governments.  A-COG’s purview includes future planning throughout upstate South Carolina counties.  It’s considered a natural for COG to be part of the planning that’ll be required to build track and rail stations to accommodate passenger trains that could whiz by at speeds of in excess of one hundred miles an hour or more.