With gas prices soaring, Gov. Sonny Perdue on Thursday threw his support behind a pair of mass transit initiatives that could get more Georgians out of their cars.
Perdue said he's directing $13 million in bonds to purchase 28 more express buses for metro Atlanta, including the Buford area.
These additions to the Xpress fleet are based on consumer demand on routes originating in Conyers, Stockbridge, Newnan, Buford, Douglasville, Canton and Snellville. These buses will serve new routes and supply more bus departure times on existing routes.
"I think with standing room only on buses and gas at four dollars a gallon, we need more transportation options, and that's what I am committed to do by funding additional GRTA buses," said Governor Perdue. "One bus can take up to 57 cars off the road and we understand with the addition of these new buses increased ridership will ease congestion."
The governor also embraced plans for a new commuter line south of Atlanta, which has already secured some federal funds. The line is slated to go to Lovejoy. Perdue suggested it should stretch all the way to Griffin, another 15 miles to the South.
``We need more transit options,'' Perdue told a state Capitol news conference.
Perdue has been cool to commuter rail in the past. Two months ago his opposition to a local option sales tax plan for transportation helped kill it in the waning minutes of the legislative session. And he has said consistently that the budget troubles at the state Department of Transportation should be resolved before the state invests significant sums of money there.
There was a new sense of urgency in his words on Thursday, although he was short on specifics.
``We're on an airplane. The choice is not to land. We've got to fix it while we fly,'' Perdue said.
Perdue said he wants a transportation package to move in next year's legislative session that would include additional ``resources.'' The Republican governor declined to say where additional funds would come from and said that still needs to be worked out.
State Sen. Doug Stoner, D-Smyrna, who sits on the state Senate's Transportation Committee, said the governor's remarks make it a priority.
``To me this isn't a partisan issue,'' Stoner said. ``People sitting in traffic don't care what party you're in.''
Business leaders who had backed this year's failed transportation initiative in the state Legislature also praised the move.
Perdue appeared on Thursday with members of the state Department of Transportation board and the department's new commissioner, Gena Abraham. The department is facing what it says could be a $1 billion shortfall in money for promised road projects. Perdue had requested an outside audit of DOT.
(AccessNorthGa.com's Ken Stanford contributed to this report).
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On the Net: Georgia Department of Transportation. http://www.dot.state.ga.us
http://accesswdun.com/article/2008/6/210771