The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is conducting research on a possible high-speed rail service connecting Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
The DOTD are actively researching costs, routes and feasibility of introducing a service that could potentially transport daily commuters between Baton Rouge and New Orleans at a high rate of speed and low cost.
The research is being used to build a proposal to the Federal Railroad Administration to compete for a share of $8 billion in federal stimulus money set aside for high-speed rail development, said Karon Persons, executive director of the Southern High-Speed RailCommission.
Preliminary estimates by the DOTD say that it would cost $115 million to upgrade existing freight rail lines between the cities to accommodate a high-speed rail service traveling at an average speed of 80 to 90 mph, said Amber Hebert, DOTD representative.
The cost of upgrading the rail would be paid for by federal stimulus dollars, but operating costs would have to be weighed against the possible number of riders to ensure the rail could support itself with little burden on tax payers, Persons said.—-Contact Xerxes Wilson at xwilson@lsureveille.com