The state transportation board decided Thursday to ask once again for federal money for high speed rail.  Earlier this year,  Georgia received just $750,000 earlier for rail while neighboring states got millions.

A high speed rail loop from Atlanta to Athens to Augusta to Savannah to Macon is what DOT chairman of the intermodal division Dana Lemon sees for Georgia.

The vision that we have now will provide transportation for about 75 percent of Georgia.

Lemon the DOT wants $16.5 million to plan the construction of the loop.  She says Georgia is more competitive this time around because it's also reaching out to neighboring states.

By doing the regional planning and regional requests we’re going to be hopefully more successful than what we got last time.

Still, the state will have to come up with 20 percent in matching funds to move the plan forward – that can be a challenge when the DOT is struggling to come up enough money to mow grass along the state’s highways.

Tags: Georgia, transportation, federal money, DOT, high speed rail