3 MARTA expansions- Clifton Corridor, Connect 400 and I-20 East. What order would you prioritize them? (Atlanta: buy, airport)

[bryantm3]

the I-20 east line would probably see the greatest rider increase, followed by 400 and the clifton corridor. the I-20 line is also closer to being finalized. i would say the I-20 corridor is probably the next step they will take.

personally, i think the clifton corridor plan as presented sucks. it includes large stretches of shared right-of-way on extremely busy streets. if you think the streetcar is slow, you haven't seen anything yet. it will be impossible to keep any sort of reasonable schedule in the current plan, and would be useless for employees in the area who need to get to work on time that don't currently use the bus.

[WanderingImport]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

personally, i think the clifton corridor plan as presented sucks. it includes large stretches of shared right-of-way on extremely busy streets. if you think the streetcar is slow, you haven't seen anything yet. it will be impossible to keep any sort of reasonable schedule in the current plan, and would be useless for employees in the area who need to get to work on time that don't currently use the bus.

I am adamantly against any sort of shared right-of-way. If that is in the Clifton Corridor plan, just scrap it. Not worth it. I favor HRT, but I would take LRT with its own right-of-way over anything shared. Pretty sure the area is too short to gain much good speed for HRT anyway, so LRT may just be the most feasible.

Anyway, back to topic. In order of most importance (though they're all very important and should've been done 15 years ago)
1. 400
2. Clifton (with its own ROW)
3. 20

If Cobb and Gwinnett were added, they'd be 2 & 3 bumping Clifton and 20 down. The demand justifies it.

[MattCW]

The Clifton RoW is only "shared" in the sense that the rails will be in the same concrete of the road. The plan has always been to have dedicated lanes.

[jero23]

Originally Posted by bu2

I don't like the very expensive light rail in the Clifton corridor, but I think connecting Emory and CDC is the most important. I strongly prefer HRT there.

400 is close behind.

I don't think I-20 East is important. Its close to the existing line and that area could be serviced well much cheaper. (now if you are talking about the Stonecrest line-extending the blue line outside 285, that one is important, but not nearly as much as the first two).

The same can be said about the GA 400 corridor, so that isn't good enough.

[jero23]

I-20 East because that has been on the drawing board the longest, multiple environmental assessments have been done already, and has of the most work is already done. Then GA 400 corridor and the Clifton corridor.

[jsvh]

Cost / Benefit

The way all expansions should be prioritized. Basically which line is going to bring the most new users into the system as a whole per dollar invested in the long-run.

[pollen]

Clifton by far. Makes a ton of sense to provide better transit connections to the largest job center in the region (Emory/CDC/VA) that doesn't already have rail transit. Also there really aren't other options in that area, because there's no room to expand the roads.
The projects on 400 and 20 would just be commuter lines. Useful, but not nearly as impactful as the clifton corridor line which would connect residential and commercial communities that are already somewhat dense.

[testa50]

400, I-20 E, Clifton

For Clifton, I've always been an advocate of scrapping the idea of going all the way to downtown Decatur. Just use dedicated ROW for a short HRT spur to Emory/CDC. That's it.

If you're going to use LRT, then at least go to downtown Decatur, and not to Avondale station. The route as shown today is a tortured alginment.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by testa50

If you're going to use LRT, then at least go to downtown Decatur, and not to Avondale station. The route as shown today is a tortured alginment.

I believe that was one of the original alignments, but the homeowners along Clairemont Avenue killed it.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by aries4118

I assume that he is thinking if we're gon' spend a lot of money for light rail, we might as well go ahead and make it heavy rail...the extra cost would be worth it.

They've decided to build several miles of tunnels for the light rail, so it is going to be a very expensive light rail line.