MARTA Launches Studies to Bring Rail to Clayton County (Atlanta: 2015, university)

[fourthwarden]

Curbed Article

In the first real step toward bringing a new rail line to Clayton County, MARTA has announced three studies of potential corridors to allow for service as far south as Jonesboro. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that MARTA will work with Norfolk Southern in an effort to determine the possibility of acquiring right-of-way along the existing rail lines to minimize the cost of building a system from scratch. The cooperation marks an improvement in relations between the two organizations; previously MARTA had proposed sharing trackage with the railroad — an idea that proved a non-starter for years. While talks with Norfolk Southern are ongoing, two other studies will examine potential costs for the project and update MARTA's commuter rail concept plan.

While various forms of transit — buses, light rail, heavy rail, diesel trains and BRT — are up for consideration, MARTA hopes that a solution can be found to bring heavy rail to Clayton via an agreement with Norfolk Southern. Trains would originate from East Point station and could service Hapeville, Mountain View / Airport — International Terminal, Forest Park / Fort Gillem, Clayton State University, Morrow / Southlake Mall and Jonesboro / Justice Center. However, right-of-way restrictions could limit MARTA to a single track line, meaning north and southbound trains would share a track, with designated pull-offs for passing. (A disaster waiting to happen?)

Until the studies are completed, however, the plans are still up in the air. All three studies will take a year to complete, with a combined cost of around $700,000 to be covered by the new tax.

[sedimenjerry]

I haven't heard much, or at least haven't been paying much attention. Is it likely that Henry County will eventually join in on marta?

[MattCW]

Just to clarify before a lot of bad information gets thrown around (I fear I'll have to do this again in 3 pages) this WILL NOT be heavy rail in the sense of what MARTA runs now! This is commuter rail, like METRA, SEPTA, Tri-Rail, Trinity Railway Express, Los Angeles Metrolink, etc. that runs on existing freight tracks.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

I haven't heard much, or at least haven't been paying much attention. Is it likely that Henry County will eventually join in on marta?

As far as I know, there has been nothing about Henry even considering it. To be fair to them, however, MARTA was only really established to be part of the core 5 Counties. That leaves Gwinnett needing to approve a one cent tax to finish joining, and Cobb needing to both vote to join and approve the one cent tax.

I'm not sure how the outer-lying counties joining would work. If MARTA actually opens the door for Commuter Rail operations in Clayton (instead of HRT), we may see that as an advertised service spreading out into the 13-County Metro.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Just to clarify before a lot of bad information gets thrown around (I fear I'll have to do this again in 3 pages) this WILL NOT be heavy rail in the sense of what MARTA runs now! This is commuter rail, like METRA, SEPTA, Tri-Rail, Trinity Railway Express, Los Angeles Metrolink, etc. that runs on existing freight tracks.

That's what i'm really confused about. The Curbed article explicitly separates Heavy Rail, and Diesel-Hauled trains, saying HRT is the preferred alternative.

In my mind, the Diesel-Hauled trains are what you mean by METRA/SEPTA/ETC.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

That's what i'm really confused about. The Curbed article explicitly separates Heavy Rail, and Diesel-Hauled trains, saying HRT is the preferred alternative.

In my mind, the Diesel-Hauled trains are what you mean by METRA/SEPTA/ETC.

The article is wrong. Also SEPTA is one of the few completely non-diesel commuter rail services in the nation operating only on electrified trackage but still shared with standard freight service in some places.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by MattCW

The article is wrong. Also SEPTA is one of the few completely non-diesel commuter rail services in the nation operating only on electrified trackage but still shared with standard freight service in some places.

My mistake. Maybe EMUs or DMUs will be used then?

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

As far as I know, there has been nothing about Henry even considering it. To be fair to them, however, MARTA was only really established to be part of the core 5 Counties. That leaves Gwinnett needing to approve a one cent tax to finish joining, and Cobb needing to both vote to join and approve the one cent tax.

I'm not sure how the outer-lying counties joining would work. If MARTA actually opens the door for Commuter Rail operations in Clayton (instead of HRT), we may see that as an advertised service spreading out into the 13-County Metro.

I forgot about the whole 5 county thing. Was just wondering if plans for rail in Clayton would be be done to make an extension to Henry as easy as possible but from other posts it sounds like any rail would likely not be brand new routes anyway

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

My mistake. Maybe EMUs or DMUs will be used then?

EMUs won't happen unfortunately. We'd need a massive projects on the scale of Denver to do that. It is possible now that DMUs could be used since there are FRA-compliant models becoming available like the Stadler FLIRT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton..._rolling_stock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_FLIRT

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

I haven't heard much, or at least haven't been paying much attention. Is it likely that Henry County will eventually join in on marta?

It would take an amendment to the MARTA act because Henry is not part of the original MARTA counties.