Overview | |
---|---|
Headquarters | Marietta, Georgia |
Reporting mark | GNRR |
Locale | Georgia |
Dates of operation | 1987– |
Technical | |
Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Georgia Northeastern Railroad( reporting mark GNRR) is a short line freight railroad which runs from the town of Elizabeth, Georgia (now within Marietta, northwest of Atlanta) to the city of Blue Ridge, Georgia. Goods hauled are mostly timber, grain, poultry, and marble products. The GNRR's subsidiary, the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, also operates on this line north of Blue Ridge. Despite the name, it actually operates between north-central and northwest Georgia, from north-northwest metro Atlanta, and is a few counties away from northeast Georgia.
Purchased from CSX, the line interconnects with the Western & Atlantic subdivision of CSX at Elizabeth Yard in Marietta at milepost 22.0 ( 33°58′29″N84°33′25″W / 33.97472°N 84.55694°W ), located 22 miles (35 km) from downtown Atlanta. GNRR tracks include a long rail siding along the east side of the triple CSX tracks, from just north of Kennesaw Avenue, over Tower Road, to just north of Loudermilk Drive, where it rejoins what becomes the main northbound CSX track. The main GNRR track splits from the GNRR siding at a rail switch just north of Tower Road, and parallels the other tracks to just before Marr Avenue, before a sharp turn to the east. Between Marr, Loudermilk, the GNRR siding, and GNRR mainline, there are two dead-end sidings extending north on the east side of the GNRR office, and one of those has another dead-end siding extending north on the west side of the office.
Counties and communities served by the line are as follows, from north to south (major towns in bold):
The route has had several names since it was chartered in 1854:
This section needs additional citations for verification .(June 2021) |
At least one proposal is also considering using the line for commuter rail on the lower part of the route, from Canton to Marietta, and possibly along the CSX main route down to Atlanta. Canton, Marietta, and Cobb County put together $40,000 for a study, a draft of which says that it would cost $97 million to upgrade the old rail tracks and add passenger train stations, train cars and locomotives. Another $1.8 million would be needed annually above the intake of fares.
The line would be 22 miles or 35 kilometers long from Canton to Elizabeth, where riders could transfer to CobbLinc buses. The draft study estimates about 300 people per day would initially ride if it were already in place (600 if it went to Atlanta), and about 1700 would ride in 20 years.
The study urges local governments (Cobb and Cherokee counties, and the cities of Marietta, Woodstock, Holly Springs, and Canton) to preserve any areas where a right-of-way may be necessary, allow no new grade crossings of roads, and prevent land development too close to the line (so that new residents cannot complain about it, though it has been there since the 1890s).
The corridor may be in addition to GRTA Xpress or even CCT buses on the parallel Interstate 575, which is scheduled open High-occupancy toll lanes in 2018.
Cobb County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia, located in the Atlanta metropolitan area in the north central portion of the state. As of 2020 Census, the population was 766,149. It is the state's third most populous county, after Fulton and Gwinnett counties. Its county seat is Marietta; its largest city is Mableton.
Cherokee County is located in the US state of Georgia. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 266,620. The county seat is Canton. The county Board of Commissioners is the governing body, with members elected to office. Cherokee County is included in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.
Canton is a city in and the county seat of Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 22,958, up from 7,709 in 2000.
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The Silver Comet Trail is a rail trail in west-northwestern Georgia, United States.
Historic ferries operated on rivers around Atlanta, Georgia area, and became namesakes for numerous current-day roads in north Georgia. Most of the ferries date to the early years of European-American settlement in the 1820s and 1830s, when parts of the region were still occupied by cherokee and other Native American communities.
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North Georgia is the northern hilly/mountainous region in the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of north Georgia were often scenes of important events in the history of Georgia. It was the site of many American Civil War battles, including the Battle of Lookout Mountain and the Battle of Chickamauga, leading up to the Atlanta Campaign. Today, particularly in the northeast portion of the region, tourism sustains the local economy.
State Route 5 (SR 5) is a 155.325-mile-long (249.971 km) state highway that travels south-to-north through portions of Carroll, Douglas, Cobb, Cherokee, Pickens, Gilmer, and Fannin counties in the western and northern parts of the U.S. state of Georgia. The highway travels from its southern terminus at SR 48 at the Alabama state line, north-northwest of Ephesus, to its northern terminus at SR 60 and SR 68 at the Tennessee state line on the McCaysville–Copperhill line, bisecting the northwestern portion of the state.
Nicknamed "The Hiwassee Route" for a scenic portion of the railroad along the Hiawassee River, the Atlanta, Knoxville and Northern Railway was chartered in 1896 as a successor to the Marietta and North Georgia Railway, which had entered receivership in 1891. It was part of a railroad system that ran from the community of Elizabeth near Marietta, Georgia, northward to Murphy in far western North Carolina, and to Delano just south of Etowah in southeast Tennessee.
Georgia's 11th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Georgia. The district is currently represented by Republican Barry Loudermilk. The district's boundaries have been redrawn following the 2010 census, which granted an additional congressional seat to Georgia. The district was redrawn again in 2023, effective for the 2024 election cycle.
The Little River is a 29.3-mile-long (47.2 km) tributary of the Etowah River in the U.S. state of Georgia in the United States.
Chattahoochee Technical College is a public technical college in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is governed by the Technical College System of Georgia and has eight campuses in the north-northwest metro-Atlanta area, and another just outside the region. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACS) to award technical certificates of credit, diplomas, and associate degrees. The college was formed in 2009 as the result of the merger of Appalachian Technical College, Chattahoochee Technical College, and North Metro Technical College.
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The Georgia Rail Passenger Program (GRPP) was a set of plans, as yet unbuilt, for intercity and commuter rail in the U.S. state of Georgia.
Metro Atlanta, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell metropolitan statistical area, is the most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Georgia and the sixth-largest in the United States, based on the July 1, 2023 metropolitan area population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Its economic, cultural, and demographic center is Atlanta, and its total population was 6,307,261 in the 2023 estimate from the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Sequoyah Regional Library System (SRLS) is a library system serving three counties in North Georgia: Cherokee, Pickens, and Gilmer. Funding is provided by the cities and counties in Cherokee and Pickens, and by the board of education in Gilmer.