Transit Summit Of Atlanta’s Northern Suburbs Seen As ‘Breakthrough Moment’ (Kennesaw: new construction, tax)

[koko339]

http://saportareport.com/blog/2011/06/northern-suburbs-hold-transit-summit-—-a-breakthrough-moment/ (broken link)

Leaders in Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett then unveiled part of their transit vision — which they are calling the “W.”

A transit line would run along the Northwest corridor from the Kennesaw area down to the Arts Center MARTA station. Another leg would go along the I-285 corridor. A third leg would extend the existing MARTA rail line up the 400 corridor. And the fourth leg would extend rail transit up the northeast corridor into Gwinnett County.


Possible Atlanta transit corridors would form a 'W'.
The “W” would be developed in phases, but it would be part of an overall regional vision for transit — serving areas that have become much more urban in the four decades when the chose not to be part of the MARTA system.

[alco89]

Excellent!

[arjay57]

Cool! Thanks for that link.

I really liked these comments:

“This is about jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Brandon Beach, president of the North Fulton Chamber who also serves on the board of the Georgia Department of Transportation. “It’s time for us to have transit in the suburbs. It’s not just inside the loop anymore. We can not just have a two-county transit system.”


Leaders in Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett then unveiled part of their transit vision — which they are calling the “W.”


A transit line would run along the Northwest corridor from the Kennesaw area down to the Arts Center MARTA station. Another leg would go along the I-285 corridor. A third leg would extend the existing MARTA rail line up the 400 corridor. And the fourth leg would extend rail transit up the northeast corridor into Gwinnett County.

The “W” would be developed in phases, but it would be part of an overall regional vision for transit — serving areas that have become much more urban in the four decades when the chose not to be part of the MARTA system.

[johnatl]

Fantastic news! Better late than never.....

[ericsonga]

As a Northern Suburbian, I am in huge support!

[erick295]

That's brilliant, especially the I-285 line which could do wonders for traffic congestion if people actually used it. Glad to see they're thinking horizontally as well as vertically, because that's one of the biggest downfalls of the current system. I hope this actually happens and that they build enough stations along the way to make it easily accessible, like in Perimeter Center where there are three stations within a mile of each other.

[alco89]

I'm a bit concerned for these northern rail lines:

Roadblock for light rail proposals in referendum? *| ajc.com

They say completion of some of the rail lines may not be possible within the 10 year tax period, meaning they might not be put on the referendum. UGH!

[atlantagreg30127]

Commuter rail can be up and running in less time than new construction of a new system like light rail. Personally, since the areas in question (Cobb/Gwinnett) have already been existing pretty much as "car only" areas for so long already, anything they get to get cars off of the roads would be an improvement.

They should probably focus on using/sharing existing rail tracks already being used by rail companies. Start commuter rail services with several stations (quick to build) in each county, and have large parking facilities at each station location. This would serve the now much needed purpose of getting cars off the roads and giving commuters options. They can then as money/time allows, add an I-285 line or add light rail as local money allows or during the next referendum, to use light rail more as a local area transit system as opposed to a commuter "into the city" type of thing.

If they plan these things right (which so far I don't think they have), they could EASILY have a commuter rail system in place, as well as expand the Xpress bus system (adding midday and even Saturday service to it) - and have them all going full steam long before the 10 year time frame in question. But they're "project happy" with dollar signs in their eyes now, and they're coming up with all types of NEW systems to work on - and as a result, many of them if not most, may never come to be.

[K-SawDude]

I think this "we can't do it in 10 years" talk is absolutely ridiculous. Of course they can get at least some of these projects done in 10 years; they just have to design/plan for achievable segments. And even if they haven't completed the entire W plan in 10 years, if they get a significant start on it, they'll find the money to complete it.

More to the point: I will vote NO on the tax if there isn't a significant rail component. I realize roads need work, but we already have a tax structure in place for road/highway improvement. The whole point of this tax is to bring a more comprehensive transit plan on board.

[koko339]

atlantagreg- The article said that part of the problem, from Gwinnett's standpoint anyway, is that some transit would share space with freight lines :A proposed Gwinnett County line runs into issues because its first leg shares land with a railway company, Norfolk-Southern.

I think the best thing to work in phases. There's no way we can afford to do nothing any longer.