Congressman Cohen Announces Corridor ID Grant to Develop a Passenger Rail Corridor Linking Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, today announced a $500,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Corridor Identification and Development program, or Corridor ID program, for the proposed passenger rail corridor linking Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville and Memphis. Created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the Corridor ID program is a comprehensive intercity passenger rail planning and development program that will help guide intercity passenger rail development throughout the country and create a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects ready for implementation. With the announcement of this award, the proposed route will be eligible to proceed to Step 1 of the program to develop a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan.

Congressman Cohen has long advocated passenger rail service linking Memphis to Nashville and discussed it with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg most recently at a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing in September.

Congressman Cohen made the following statement:

“Passenger rail service linking Tennessee’s major cities will be a major economic shot in the arm and will invigorate travel and tourism across our state. I was pleased to submit a letter of support for this project and am glad that the FRA has heeded my repeated calls to prioritize this important project. Once this service is in operation, much of the country will be accessible by rail from Memphis. This is a very big deal, and I look forward to working with stakeholders in all of the route’s proposed cities to continue to move this project forward.”

# # #