Knoxville downtown rail project has been a long time coming, but can it stay on track?

Former Knoxville City Councilman Joe Hultquist has long been a proponent of public transit, dating back to his time with the city.

And he thinks he has a window of opportunity that could bring light rail to downtown.

After brainstorming projects for 20 years, the last few months have provided Hultquist the ear of local state legislators, professional transit backers and 18 rail cars from San Diego. His idea is big, but there’s no guarantee it will work.

“I’ve always said we need to find a way to put together something that can actually work in a city the size of Knoxville, and if we build it here we could be a model for cities across the country,” he said. “There are a number of cities that are like Knoxville that (normally) aren’t big enough.

“We don’t need to wait until we’re in Nashville’s position and have to scramble together a multi-billion project to help address (public) transportation.”

Searching for cheaper options

Cities the size of Knoxville don’t typically have rail options, largely due to cost.

Hultquist has partnered with Virginkar and Associates Inc., a California-based rail line consultant that worked with Middle Tennessee partners when Nashville’s Music City Star, the 32-mile commuter train from Lebanon to downtown, was created.

Virginkar’s Vice President Brad Black said new transit lines, light rail or otherwise, could cost up to $40 million a mile on the low end.

Hultquist hopes to put together a project that costs less than $100 million all-in.

He said any project or proposal is only in the exploratory stages at this point, but said one possibility is an existing Norfolk Southern rail line that runs near McGhee Tyson Airport and travels north to downtown.

In an ideal proposal, the plan would call for light rail service from the airport to World’s Fair Park.

For the plan to succeed, the city or county would have to obtain some sort of rights for the railroad line that runs near the airport to downtown.

“It’s the first leg of what will hopefully be a bigger system,” Hultquist said. “It’s low-hanging fruit, but it’s beyond that. It’s a good corridor, it has some key elements like the airport and the second-highest populated county after Knox County which is growing dramatically … so you’ve got a lot of elements there.”

Getting traction

The idea became more of a reality when Hultquist was told the city of San Diego was beginning to sell off retired rail cars for cheap.

When Virginkar’s president, Arun Virginkar, heard Hultquist’s idea of bringing light rail to a Southern city, he became interested.

Virginkar offered to help finance the deal, $10,000 per car, $180,000 total. Hultquist accepted. The cars have been shrink-wrapped to prevent vandalism and shipped to a secure industrial park north of San Diego.

“We were very clear, this is the cart in front of the horse,” Hultquist said of their initial conversations. “This is all based on opportunity. We don’t have a project yet but we’re addressing this now because of this narrow window of opportunity because (San Diego) was getting ready to scrap everything.”

Would it work?

Hultquist has maintained the owners of the line, Norfolk Southern Corp., might be willing to share it if given a good deal. Ideally, he said, the public could use the tracks in the daytime and the railway giant could use it in the evening, a plan called temporal separation.

However, when asked about the line by Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, John Edwards, Norfolk Southern’s general director of passenger policy, said in a Feb. 8 letter that the deal wouldn't be feasible.

“Light rail service involves use of equipment that is not appropriate for use on NS tracks,” he said. “Physical separation is required.”

In Wednesday’s Senate hearing about the proposed bill, Tasha Alexander of the Tennessee Railroad Association said the line is an active line that services the Arconic plant, but said temporal separation could be an option.

Burchett spokesman Michael Grider said the mayor's office sent the letter to Norfolk Southern as a courtesy to Hultquist.

Currently, neither Burchett nor Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero have signed onto the project.

“We’re aware of the idea but we haven’t seen any real details of how it would work logistically or financially, and how it might impact World’s Fair Park or other public property,” Jesse Mayshark, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero’s spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

Three-legged approach

The group has the makings of a plan that would require three functional legs to operate a successful transit system.

The project will need to be based on and work through a nonprofit, something like a transit alliance. Nashville’s Music City Star was preceded by a railroad authority that did much of the legwork.

It would also require some sort of public-private partnership, where a donor would support the project. Hultquist said conversations have begun with potential donors, but he would not name them.

The final leg was thwarted last week when the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee killed a bill that would have laid the financial groundwork for the project. The bill was was carried by Knoxville’s Rep. Eddie Smith in the House and Sen. Becky Duncan Massey in the Senate.

The failed bill

The bill sought to create special assessment districts in locations that could support rail or bus rapid transit systems, an alternative funding approach for expensive light rail systems. The structure would mirror that of Central Business Improvement Districts in areas like downtown Knoxville.

“The bill would help fund the transit line because the transit line will not only help support the development but will actually create an opportunity to develop around those station areas,” Hultquist told the Senate Transportation and Safety Committee on March 14.

Various members in both the House and Senate transportation committees were unimpressed with the pages-long amendment attached to the bill and the rushed manner in which it was filed and carried through committees.

In Wednesday's hearing, legislators were concerned the bill would allow for the local government to use forced annexation and/or imminent domain.

Sen. Massey addressed those concerns and said an amended version of the bill prohibited a government from acting unless it was brought forth through a petition of local property owners.

“It doesn’t force anybody to do anything,” Massey said at the hearing Wednesday. “It just sets up the parameters if Knoxville decides to do this and they get the interested people, it sets up the project to do that."

State Sen. Art Swann, R-Maryville, said he didn't think the bill should pass because the local government bodies hadn't been notified about it or given a chance for any input.

Hultquist said the original idea was to have the legal framework set up with the bill and then proceed to see what the community wanted. The project will continue, he said.

“Now, we’re going to (go ahead) anyways, but we won’t have the legal framework in place," he said Wednesday. "We’ll have to go back and do that later, assuming we get broad consensus.”

Hultquist said he plans to bring it back up to lawmakers next year.

Is there interest?

Knoxville Airport Authority Chairman Eddie Mannis said Hultquist had met with him and others to explain the idea, but Mannis doesn’t see it sticking, at least not yet.

Even though the airport saw record passenger numbers in 2017, flying nearly 2 million people, he doesn’t think the demand is there. At the end of the day, he said, ridership and interest are all that would matter.

“I’m trying to get my arms around, where is the interest?” Mannis asked. “My concern is we don’t have any form of public transportation running there now.

“If we were running KAT buses out there and they were filled I would certainly be able to understand it a little better ... so I’m trying to figure out what he knows that I don’t know.”

Black, the vice president of Virginkar, said it will take time to get ridership numbers up.

“Initially the ridership (on the Music City Star) was just abysmal,” he said. “It took a long time to build the ridership. It did not meet the ridership projections until the eighth or ninth year. But looked what it’s spawned. Now Nashville is looking towards a major initiative of lines. But you’ve got to start somewhere.”