Commuter rail looking more attractive

As traffic in the Charleston metro area thickens, plans to widen I-26 have become more lucid. The Post and Courier says:

Most of the time, I-26 efficiently speeds motorists between downtown Charleston and Summerville in 20 to 25 minutes. But rush hour is a different story.

...

If you think rush hour is tough now, consider what it might be like in 20 years or so.

If government projections hold true — and the area's planners suspect their own forecasts are too conservative — 265,000 new residents will pour into the area during the next two decades.

But, commuter rail starts to look a lot better than widening I-26 when you factor in a population that continues to grow, record-breaking gas prices, a local bump in Amtrak riders and an old area that struggles to handle cars.

Though commuter trains aren't cheap, they compare favorably to roads. The Post and Courier says the commuter rail could run $1.3 to $10 million per mile, compared with some $36 million per mile for an I-26 expansion.

So what to do? With the once-lofted monorail system now defunct, bets seem to be on commuter rail, and that's looking more feasible. Mayor Joe Riley recently wrote in a letter to The Post and Courier:

A $97,000 study is already underway for a route between Charleston and Summerville.

Also, a S.C. transit plan outlines some future possibilities for rail at the state level, including the potential to tie Charleston into U.S. Department of Transportation's Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor.

The Post and Courier is covering the rail topic throughout the week, we'll keep you posted of interesting remarks.