Design Your Own MARTA Expansion (Lenox: commuter, park, area)

[bu2]

This is what is so lacking in the sales tax referendum-an actual cohesive plan. There are just a bunch of contradictory proposals pulled out of a hat.

The Clifton plan is to go from Lindberg parallel to the railroad tracks to Emory/CDC and stop near Clairmont and North Decatur. It will run up to Doraville (Gwinnet County contributes more trips in the corridor than north Fulton).

They're trying to connect it in some way to Avondale station through bus or light rail. They seem to be afraid of the cost or disruption of connecting it with heavy rail. I suspect the line will be a drain if they don't eventually do so.

They dismissed their original plan of heading down rail right of way to near East Lake due to community opposition. That route wouldn't serve Dekalb Medical Center and wouldn't serve well Decatur or SE Dekalb (the other major source of trips to the corridor). Obviously going directly to Decatur would require subway or be way too disruptive and wouldn't serve Dekalb Medical Center and would not serve SE Dekalb as well as Avondale (which has parking and is out of the Decatur downtown traffic).

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Ah, this would be so nice. Talk about traffic relief for suburban commuters.

If they do get the Clifton Corridor built, it's going to be interesting to see how they route it. Personally, I could see the red line running from Lindbergh, through Clifton, onto the E-W line going westbound, and finally, absorbing the green line and running all the way to Bankhead. This would create the problem, however, of forcing people to transfer at Lindbergh for a more direct way into town. Or perhaps this line could start at Five Points, head east, loop through the Clifton Corridor, go through 5P again but southbound this time, and finish at the new international terminal? They could shorten the Green Line to Bankhead-Five Points to compensate.

BTW, where'd you get this tool? I'd love to experiment with it as well.

Just used the Google Maps, create my map. Added polylines and points to represent the stations.

[gtcorndog]

These plans are great, but if we are looking at a total of $6.2 billion raised for the entire region, we can't spend $6.19 billion on extending a few rail lines that will reach about 5% of the regions population. People in the outlying counties have their own wants/needs and aren't going to vote for a plan that provides them nothing.

Personally, I think the Cobb line to Cumberland or even Southern Poly is a great idea. The stretch up to KSU sounds great too, but I think that will be too costly to include with these funds. This stretch would be a good starter line and pave the way for a future extension. I also think that adding a 5-6 heavy rail extension of the gold line up into Gwinnett would be a good idea. That won't get it all of the way up to the Arena, but it does extend MARTA's reach significantly and would give a lot of people the opportunity to park and ride MARTA into town. I am not a huge fan of the 400 extension. People in this area already have the option of driving to a station and riding into town. While not optimal, this is something that doesn't currently exist on the 75 and 85 corridors. I would vote for a plan that included these lines. I'm not sure what this would run, but if it could be done for about $1.5 billion, I would be happy and I think that would be an appropriate level of investment for rail for this tax hike. I'd like to see more spent, but it doesn't make any sense and won't fly with the more sub-suburban voters.


I cringe when I see $500 million being budgeted for hte 285/400 interchange. Why not just keep the toll on the road and use those revenues to re-do this interchange? $500 million could be better used elsewhere in my opinion.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Don't forget, though, that if the Cobb line is light rail (which it will most likely be), then that would require a connection to heavy rail, probably at or near Arts Center. By contrast, it would be theoretically possible to go nonstop from somewhere in Cobb County to the airport, were the line to be all heavy rail. Same goes for the Clifton Road corridor.



...

Well, I am also imagining that the Cobb County light rail segment (light metro) I would come down on the western edge and not need to connect directly to Arts Center. It would be a light rail corridor that would come down through Northside Drive, Hemphill Circle, West Midtown, Northyards, Olympic Park and on to Grand Five Points. This light rail segment would then continue on through Castleberry Hill, Whitehall, Mechanicsville/Pittsburgh, Peoplestown, and then down the eastside of the Connector on to the Airport. There is already a railroad right-of-way for this--for everything north of Peoplestown.

The Clifton Corridor line (light rail/light metro), would connect to this line after leaving Armour Valley by way of Brookwood and Atlantic Station.
The light rail segment would also split off after Whitehall and continue east (along the southside of I-20) through Turner Field/Summerhill, Grant Park, Glenwood Park, Ormewood Park/East Atlanta, South Point (a renamed South DeKalb Mall area), etc. As you know, there is already a railroad right-of-way for the Clifton Corridor.


Take a look a this map for some reference to what I'm talking about.

http://www.cfpt.org/documents/worldclass_map.pdf

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by StAubin

This is all Heavey rail. It does not include light rail lines that will be built (I.E. the beltline)



I Know i will get blasted for keeping Five Points as the only hub. I did that because it is cheaper and is the one station set up to be a multi direction hub. Also alot of thees lines use provisions that are already in place.

The 5 points isn't the problem. My problem is that one line only stops at Cumberland Mall. It should go all the way to Kennesaw, where I live.

[StAubin]

Originally Posted by green_mariner

The 5 points isn't the problem. My problem is that one line only stops at Cumberland Mall. It should go all the way to Kennesaw, where I live.

That would be nice but I had limmited expansion in cobb (3 stations) because i honestly cant see cobb aproving the tax anytime soon. The county is to anti-tax, as evident by how splost narrowley passed.

CCT could operate that light rail line and share the tracks with marta to arts center.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by StAubin

That would be nice but I had limmited expansion in cobb (3 stations) because i honestly cant see cobb aproving the tax anytime soon. The county is to anti-tax, as evident by how splost narrowley passed.

CCT could operate that light rail line and share the tracks with marta to arts center.

I know this. As soon as I graduate college and get a job that pays well, I'm leaving. Currently, I'm here because the cost of living is cheaper, and I don't have a car. If I had more money, Decatur, Sandy Springs, or Atlanta might be an option for me.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Just used the Google Maps, create my map. Added polylines and points to represent the stations.

Cool, thanks!

[cest524]

I designed this one originally on Google Maps, then sorta stylized it and made it look nice and neat on Microsoft Word. I can pretty much guarantee this one would require a lot more than $2 billion, but it would definitely help ease traffic congestion from almost all of the Atlanta metro. I tried to link all the suburbs, major neighborhoods, and important locations in and around the city together. I think having a top of the line rapid transit system will greatly benefit Atlanta for decades. Feel free to make suggestions!

Here is a link to the Google Docs version of it, as the text is not great in the picture. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...srcid=0B5R6p34 7HZZPOTY0YWE1NmUtYjE4NS00NGRiLWE0MzktZmEyYTZmZDMwY jAz&hl=en_US

Oh, and the station next to Five Points that's sorta hard to read is Amtrak, judging that Atlanta's multimodal station in Downtown will be built in the next few years.

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by cest524

I designed this one originally on Google Maps, then sorta stylized it and made it look nice and neat on Microsoft Word. I can pretty much guarantee this one would require a lot more than $2 billion, but it would definitely help ease traffic congestion from almost all of the Atlanta metro. I tried to link all the suburbs, major neighborhoods, and important locations in and around the city together. I think having a top of the line rapid transit system will greatly benefit Atlanta for decades. Feel free to make suggestions!

Here is a link to the Google Docs version of it, as the text is not great in the picture. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...srcid=0B5R6p34 7HZZPOTY0YWE1NmUtYjE4NS00NGRiLWE0MzktZmEyYTZmZDMwY jAz&hl=en_US

Oh, and the station next to Five Points that's sorta hard to read is Amtrak, judging that Atlanta's multimodal station in Downtown will be built in the next few years.

This is the best one I've seen yet. I certainly would vote for it.