If a train between Southeastern states averaged 110 miles per hour, would you be more likely to use it? If railroads set up commuter routes that connected smaller and larger cities in South Carolina, would citizens ride?

The Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains is lobbying for faster more frequent rail service in the two states, and Newberry is just one of the areas that the organization hopes will benefit from the efforts.

Phil Astwood, secretary of CAPT and a Newberry resident, visited city council last week asking council to consider signing on with the multi-state effort to boost passenger rail.

With a vision toward creating the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, groups in Georgia, North and South Carolina and Virginia have banded together to make the federally-designated dream a reality.

“The legislature is unlikely to act on this unless they are convinced that you [cities] want it,” Astwood said. Federal funds are available for the granting for communities along the planned route, and the Carolina group has sent requests for resolutions supporting the idea to all municipalities within 10 miles of the rails.

The federal plan is to extend the high-speed rail service on Amtrak’s Northeast corridor south to Richmond, Va. and Raleigh, N.C. From there, the line would split, with one route going through Charlotte, N.C. and the Greenville area to Atlanta and another carrying on through Columbia and Savannah to end in Jacksonville, Fla. Limited stops and revamped laws and grade crossings would increase speeds, and supporters hope by extension, riders.

Highway congestion, airport congestion and pollution are three problems facing modern America, and passenger rail advocates say more train travel is the answer.

“[Passenger rail] is one of the answers to all of those things,” Astwood said.

Along with the boost in speed, current top speeds for trains in South Carolina are 79 miles per hour Astwood says, the groups hope to see a boost in commuter spurs built off the main high speed lines, to service cities like Newberry that are just outside major metropolises.

The Carolinas group is advocating at least five new passenger routes that radiate outward from Columbia like the spokes of a wheel cutting through Newberry, Chester, Sumter, Orangeburg and Batesburg-Leesville. These spokes would connect cities like Charleston and Asheville with the high-speed corridor, as well as serving smaller communities.

North Carolina and Virginia are ahead of South Carolina in efforts to create the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. North Carolina is developing the Charlotte to Raleigh segment and Virginia is hard at work on the Richmond to Washington leg.

The Carolinas Association for Passenger Trains estimates that for each full passenger coach put on the rails, as many as 60 to 125 cars can come off the highways. For that, and many other reasons, it says the state and nation are on the brink of a “rail renaissance.”

Considering that “Commuter Rail” is one of the items under old business on the City of Newberry’s planning commission meeting tomorrow night, including “Comprehensive Plan Language” and “Possible Station Locations,” maybe so. The commission meets at 5 p.m. in the City Hall conference room.