CARTA leaders said Thursday they welcome an upcoming $700,000 study on re-instituting passenger rail service for Chattanooga.
Lisa Maragnano, executive director, said, "This fits right into our multimodal transit center study, which we have said needs to be by rail."
She added, "This is really a cool thing."
Chattanooga received a $400,000 federal grant for the study and will contribute another $300,000.
Steve Jett, who heads the CARTA board, said, "This should be a fun project to be part of. It will affect CARTA directly. It is an exciting project for our city."
Ms. Maragnano said the three finalists for the consultant for the multimodal transit center center were interviewed Monday and Tuesday. She said a decision may come by the end of the week.
Then, she said, officials will discuss price with the top choice. If that proves to be an obstacle, then price will be talked with the next choice, she said.
Under the law, price cannot be discussed up front, she stated.