Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s Passenger Rail Commission will include some top community leaders from several sectors, she announced today.

Chief executive officers from TSYS, the W.C. Bradley Co. and the Medical Center; a university president, garrison commander, city councilors, state legislators and top city executives are included on the panel Tomlinson hopes will help Columbus get up to speed in the effort to get passenger rail between here and Atlanta.

"While Columbus may not be the first city connected to any Georgia passenger rail line, we have to know whether we should be the second, third or fourth city to be on the line,” Tomlinson said in a release. “We can't sit on the sidelines and let Georgia's transportation future pass us by," said Mayor Tomlinson.”

Gordon Kenna, CEO of Georgians for Passenger Rail, said recently that the state’s first passenger rail line would likely be from Atlanta to Macon, via Griffin. Kenna is a member of the mayor’s rail commission.

Others are:

Edward Hudson, Hudson, Nicolson and Ray

Calvin Smyre, state representative

Gary Allen, city council

Scott Allen, 2WR Architects

David Arrington, deputy city manager

Betsy Covington, Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley

Patti Cullen, River Valley Regional Commission executive director

Glenn Davis, city council

Lance Duke, The Medical Center, president; chief executive officer

Timothy Farmer, citizen representative

Col. Jeffrey Fletcher, Army Maneuver Center of Excellence, garrison commander

Fred Fussell, citizen representative

Ed Harbison, state senator

Joel Harrell, Norfolk Southern, vice president

Bruce Huff, city council

Isaiah Hugley, city manager

Saundra Hunter, METRA

Jeremy Jeffrey Aflac, senior VP, investments

Gordon Kenna, Georgians for Passenger Rail, chief executive officer

Antonio Lawson, citizen representative

Colin Martin, Chamber of Commerce, transportation committee

Nelson McGahee, citizen representative

Tim Mescon, Columbus State University, president

David Millen, GDOT, district engineer

Linda Nguyen Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker, Ford

Mark Olivie, W.C. Bradley Co., chief executive officer

Mark Oropeza, Columbus Airport, director

Phil Tomlinson, TSYS, chief executive officer

Alan Ware, GDOT, rail planning and policy specialist

Sam Wellborn, GDOT, board member