SAM Shortline awarded $1.6 million dollar state grant
CORDELE, Ga. – Sam Shortline make a groundbreaking announcement that is set to transform the transportation industry.
The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) has allocated $1,625,425 from the Georgia Locomotive Fuel Tax Program to the Southwest Georgia Railroad Excursion Authority (SWGREA).
The funds will support the construction of a crucial railroad spur track siding, aimed at creating a storage and maintenance facility for the Sam excursion train’s coach and specialty cars.
“We’re just grateful to the Georgia Department of Transportation and the state of Georgia for the ongoing support for over 20 years. We’re grateful to the citizens along the corridor who have supported us as volunteers, as local officials, and in county and city governments. Its going to provide a way for Sam Shortline to sustain its operation well into the future, an operation that has been an important asset in terms of economic development through tourism for the two county jurisdiction of Crisp county and Sumter county. So, this is just going to make it much more affordable for us, much more efficient for us to maintain this passenger consists that you see here with our own track, our own facility,” said Lee Kinnamon, SWGREA Chairman.
The Authority has been running the Sam tourist train route from the Georgia Veterans State Park through Leslie, Americus, and Plains to Archery.
Cathy Williams, Congressional District 2 Representative on the Georgia Department of Transportation Board of Directors, discusses the funding process and the grant’s impact throughout the region.
“Over $1.6 million grant was initiated by a team here at the Sam Shortline to apply for. It was a competitive application. Only six got funded this year. So it’s interesting because when I’ve written this short line, I’ve talked to people who are not from Georgia, they’re from all over the country, but they’re very much train enthusiasts, especially short lines, and they come from all over the world to ride on the short lines and learn about the history, to see what rural Georgia looks like, to see the beauty of congressional district two. And, it also adds fuel to the economic engines of all these cities and counties that it goes through. It’s just, it is a treasure and a gem,” said Cathy Williams, District 2 Representative, GDOT Board of Directors.
Lee Kinnamon, Chairman for the Southwest Georgia Railroad Excursion Authority (SWGREA), discusses how this grant will affect the long-term prospects of the Sam Shortline Railroad.
“Long term, the Sam Shortline will be able to continue for another 22 years. We’re celebrating, now, 22 years of train operations. What this does is it gives us the possibility, the real likelihood that we can continue indefinitely with this train operation, providing citizens of Georgia with a wonderful way to visit the home of the 39th President of the United States, Jimmy Carter,” said Kinnamon.
De’Andra Jacobs reporting.
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