Good show by the Empire State of the South with its huge transportation issues: North Carolina invests, wins rail money; Georgia doesn't.

From the AJC:

North Carolina has spent more than $300 million since 1992 to bolster its passenger rail service. On Thursday, it saw a return on that investment: a $545 million slice of President Barack Obama's $8 billion high-speed rail stimulus.

Florida got an even bigger piece of that pie -- $1.25 billion. The Sunshine State may have helped its case by boosting funding for mass transit after U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood warned that it needed to get its act together to compete for high-speed rail funds.

Georgia got a similar warning but didn't jump to action. It got a $750,000 sliver.

So soon Florida will start work on a high-speed line from Orlando to Tampa, and North Carolina will get busy upgrading track from Charlotte toward Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, while they're building, Georgia will be studying. The $750,000 will be divided on projects examining the feasibility of three proposed lines: one from Atlanta to Birmingham, another from Atlanta to Chicago, and the third from Macon to Jacksonville.

Atlanta business leaders, warily eyeing the rise of Charlotte and other Southern cities, have dreaded this moment for years.

"It matters very much," said Renay Blumenthal, senior vice president at the Metro Atlanta Chamber, which has advocated for high-speed rail planning for more than a decade. "We have long feared," she said, "that there was going to be a high-speed rail from Washington, D.C., down the southeastern corridor, and we did not want to see that train stop in Charlotte. If it didn’t come down to Atlanta, think about the economic advantage that corridor gives to Charlotte."

Charlotte's line goes through Richmond to Washington. Lines on maps show it also would have come down to Atlanta if it were funded.

One lobbyist said Thursday's announcement hearkened to critical decisions that Atlanta and Birmingham, similar cities decades ago, made on transportation. “I’m afraid this is like Birmingham deciding not to expand its airport back in the 1950s,” giving Atlanta the opportunity to become a different class of city, said Matt Hicks, associate legislative director at the Association County Commissioners of Georgia.

Georgia did apply for a major grant from the $8 billion, asking for $472 million to build a complete, passenger-ready line between Atlanta and Macon. One problem: Georgia already has $80 million in federal earmarks for that rail corridor, which it has not spent.