East West Railway through Atlanta (Marietta, Decatur: lease, loft, house)

[cwlawrence]

Anyone know how often the train (CSX?) runs along the tracks just below the MARTA line along College Ave?

[waronxmas]

Originally Posted by cwlawrence

Anyone know how often the train (CSX?) runs along the tracks just below the MARTA line along College Ave?

Not very often, and it seems mostly to occur late at night. At least through the segment that runs under Five Points.

I have a funny personal story about that line:

I used to live in this loft Downtown on Marietta Street. Let me rephrase that, I used to live in this absolutely KILLER bachelor pad loft Downtown on Marietta Street.

When I went to look at it prior signing the lease during the day, the neighborhood seemed fairly quiet/outside the tourist zone. Not a lot of traffic, but sort of in an industrial area, and a weird inexplicable bridge over Jones Avenue right next to it that I never really took seconds to think about or travel over.

If I had I would have seen the several freight train lines that ran directly underneath my loft. Unfortunately, my "discovery" came during my first night sleeping there after I moved in when I was jostled awake at 3am by what I thought was an earthquake.

[testa50]

Probably 10-20 trains per day. Of note, CSX's Hulsey Yard is along the corridor (in Cabbagetown). This is one of the four major entry points for intermodal traffic into the metro area. It handles somewhere between 150,000-200,000 containers per year (each and every one of them ultimately going down Boulevard by truck and onto I-20). So that's 2-4 trains per day serving just that terminal, if you crunch the numbers.

It's not one of CSX's most important lines, but it's of medium importance.

[cwlawrence]

10-20 a day!

Thats the section that goes through Decatur too? Do they run all night?

We looked at a great house that is close to the tracks and I am a bit concerned about the noise... especially with a baby in the house.

Does anyone know if there are plans to phase out the line? (e.g. beltline taking over the r-o-w)

[oakhurstlauren]

Originally Posted by cwlawrence

10-20 a day!

Thats the section that goes through Decatur too? Do they run all night?

We looked at a great house that is close to the tracks and I am a bit concerned about the noise... especially with a baby in the house.

Does anyone know if there are plans to phase out the line? (e.g. beltline taking over the r-o-w)

We live near the tracks in Decatur, We don't notice it anymore, but when I ask my SO how many times a day, he said 2 or 3 he thought. I had the same thought. Really no idea since we don't pay attention anymore unless we're actually trying to cross the tracks and a train is a comin, which doesn't seem very frequently.

[cwlawrence]

I know for certain that one runs by around 5 every day... which is fine, I kinda like the sound of the train. Not sure if I could handle 10 times a day and all through the night...

Do they run on the weekends too?

[testa50]

Originally Posted by cwlawrence

10-20 a day!

Thats the section that goes through Decatur too? Do they run all night?

We looked at a great house that is close to the tracks and I am a bit concerned about the noise... especially with a baby in the house.

Does anyone know if there are plans to phase out the line? (e.g. beltline taking over the r-o-w)

It could be a bit less than 10, I am just guessing based on the freight I know the corridor handles and the amount I see trains along there. I would think the bit between downtown and Cabbagetown is the busiest. 10 trains is only a train every 2.5 hours or so--a "busy" corridor would have 40-60 trains per day. Some have upwards 200!

Note that when I say train, I mean any movement of freight along the mainline. I might just be a local delivery train with half a dozen cars full of scrap steel.


Also, I doubt the line would ever be phased out. That's the reason the MARTA tracks are suspended in the air for much of the corridor. With gas prices going up, freight rail becomes ever more economical, which means the market value of existing ROW surges.

Which is kind of bad for public transit projects: people want public transit the most right when gas prices are at their highest; but high gas prices also means railroads are flush with cash and investing in infrastructure, and it's very difficult to get them to sell their ROW under these conditions.

[jkup]

Here is a map with all the train lines and estimated daily use from the GDOT

http://www.dot.state.ga.us/maps/Docu...ns_Per_Day.pdf