ATLANTA --- Georgians might soon have a choice of trains -- super- fast ones in some cases -- to ride between cities on the East Coast.

Though the revival of passenger rail has been talked of and dreamed of for decades, the federal government is now offering huge sums to states that could provide the locomotion to finally pull the train out of the station. Yet some critics say other factors aren't yet in place.

President George W. Bush signed into law a budget that included $30 million to states that matched the funds to be used in planning new rail lines. He also approved separate legislation providing additional funds for improving existing lines.

President Obama raised the ante with $8 billion in stimulus funds that would be available to states almost immediately and the promise of $1 billion more every year, with emphasis on the fastest trains.

"A major new high-speed rail line will generate many thousands of construction jobs over several years, as well as permanent jobs for rail employees and increased economic activity in the destinations these trains serve," he said in April. "High-speed rail is long overdue, and this plan lets American travelers know that they are not doomed to a future of long lines at the airports or jammed cars on the highways."

The board of the Georgia Department of Transportation voted last month to draft a statewide proposal as a way of tapping into the flood of federal money. Six months earlier, it hired Erik Steavens to begin coordinating its modest rail line with bus service and highways, beginning with dusting off railroad plans sketched out in the 1990s.

"Our goal is to have a plan that we're going to get to the federal government by about August that we're calling our interim state rail plan that would take a lot of these older rail products and tweak them a little bit," said Mr. Steavens, the intermodal programs division director. A comprehensive revision is to come later.

In the '90s, Georgia lawmakers had mandated the order in which trains would be put into service, starting with a line between Atlanta and Macon; the power in the Legislature at the time was centered in south Georgia. The first phase was to be a run of just 26 miles from Atlanta to Lovejoy, to be expanded next to Griffin.

Mr. Steavens intends to follow that framework, which would include connections in Macon to other cities in the state.

"The Atlanta-to-Macon service is kind of like the trunk of a tree. Without that trunk, you can't have branches that go to Augusta, to Savannah, to Columbus or Albany or Valdosta," he said.

Advocates and real estate developers have lobbied for a line between Atlanta and Athens that they dubbed the "Brain Train" because it would link so many universities. Joined by environmentalists, they have been the most vocal supporters of passenger rail in Georgia.

The federal money has brought additional advocates hoping to connect their cities to the proposed national high-speed network that includes Atlanta; Columbia; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Macon. One city is Augusta, and one of its two congressmen is on board.

"I'm all for making high-speed rail a reality in this area," said Democratic Rep. John Barrow, who vowed to work with Mr. Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "I would support an effort to get Augusta on the route map because it would bring jobs and investments to an area that sure could use it."

A spokeswoman for Republican Rep. Paul Broun said he wants to hear the wishes of Augusta leaders before committing to it.

Another Augusta-area lawmaker is more critical of the concept.

State Rep. Ben Harbin, R-Evans, leads the House Appropriations Committee, and he has put the brakes on the Atlanta-Lovejoy starter line because he's concerned the feds aren't promising the right kind of money, namely operating funds.

"We're not opposed to rail," he said. "We just want to make sure it's a sustainable program."

Ticket sales at affordable prices don't cover all the operating costs of any railroad, which requires state or local governments to subsidize the difference. Mr. Harbin says none of the many studies on rail service in Georgia have shown sufficient ridership to make the subsidy affordable to the budget.

"We subsidize all transportation. ... We just want to make sure that it's not such a huge hole that it takes away from other forms of transportation," he said, noting that highway travel will remain the most used and that the state already has too little money for all the needed road projects.

That's also the fear of Benita Dodd, an analyst with the Atlanta-based think tank Georgia Public Policy Foundation.

"There is not enough ridership to justify the expenditure. And there are so many other priorities that we are going to be selling ourselves short," she said, calling education, public safety and health care greater needs.

Voters might have some say in the matter. Separate proposals in the Georgia Legislature would give them the choice to raise sales taxes with a portion going toward rail operating subsidies in November 2010.

For now, the state Department of Transportation and Gov. Sonny Perdue intend to seek the federal funds while they're available.