MARTA eyeing major expansion up Georgia 400 corridor (Atlanta, Alpharetta: centers, station)

[gtcorndog]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Would you rather wait 50 years until we can build the $10 Billion tunnels necessary to hit downtown Roswell and Alpharetta, or run the line by the highway for $2 Billion now? It might not be perfect, but we can run buses or streetcars off the trunk network into the downtown areas for minimal cost. Plus, there are already a lot of development nodes at the highway so why are they less deserving of service than the downtown areas especially when it's faster and cheaper to serve them?

Well with that logic, might as well spend 100 billion today! Choooo Choooo!

[arc-lang]

Expanding further into North Fulton is the biggest thing I am watching. The future of either heavy rail or light rail is in some way key I believe to how successful expanding up GA 400 is. If strong demand is there and good public support is on board this could lead the way for MARTA in making its case to the rest of the suburban counties, particularly the ones to the north. The North line which terminates at the North Springs station has always been a popular one for me and in the recent past when I was a regular the trains were usually quite full.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by gtcorndog

Well with that logic, might as well spend 100 billion today! Choooo Choooo!

What are you on about now? $100 Billion for what exactly?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Interesting. Got any links to this?

Here's an article from the South Cobb Patch about the type of redevelopment plans that have put forth for Mableton, which unlike Austell, Lithia Springs and Douglasville has never really truly ever had a traditional walkable downtown:
Mableton Redevelopment District Now Has Master Plan - Government - South Cobb, GA Patch

From the article:

The recommendation for the Old Town Center area is that a new rail stop be established along Front Street. Old Town Center area is made up of Barnes Hardware store, existing stores, the South Cobb Community Center adjacent to Lions Park, existing church and cemetery, rail station, proposed church, main street, plaza and park.

Originally Posted by toll_booth

Mableton shouldn't be a problem here; there are some significant tracts of land just north of US 278 near Floyd road. But Austell is a different story. They would have to displace a lot of buildings to put in a MARTA station in "downtown" Austell.

Those are good points.

Though, keep-in-mind when people talk about putting future rail transit stations in traditional walkable downtown village settings in suburbs like Mableton, Austell, etc, they are not talking about building more of the type of suburban stations that MARTA was originally built with (single-use transit stations surrounded by large surface parking lots)....In this day and age of new urbanism and new suburbanism, they are often talking about building future stations as some type of multi-use structure in an already relatively densely-developed area with parking located underneath the structure.

Also, in regards to the potential placement of a high-capacity passenger rail transit station in Downtown Austell....A station in Downtown Austell likely would not have to displace any buildings of historical significance...

...That's because there are at-least 2 sites in Downtown Austell where a rail transit station could go without displacing any existing development of historic significance: one on the west side of Downtown Austell where an industrial building now sits in the wedge just to the west of where the NS/Southern RR and the NS/H-Line railroad lines split, the other on the east side of Downtown Austell on unused land where Jefferson Street loops to the north over US 78-278/GA 8 Veterans Memorial Parkway into Joe Jerkins Boulevard.

Like Mableton, Austell is particularly a town that would most likely jump at the redevelopment opportunities that a new high-capacity rail transit station would bring....That's because Austell was hit extremely-hard by catastrophic floods in September 2009 and has been very-slow to recover (Austell lost a significant chunk of its residential property tax base in those floods).

Lithia Springs would also most likely jump at the opportunity to redevelop its downtown village area into something better, particularly since the unincorporated town has never really had many significant development opportunities.

Places like the downtown areas of Lithia Springs, Austell and Mableton are areas that would love to have access to some of the development opportunities that other parts of the metro area have access to....And high-capacity passenger rail transit service could bring those areas the type of development opportunities they desire while also generating revenue to cover capital and operating costs for high-capacity rail transit service out the I-20 West and GA 6 West corridors.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I'd rather see stations located in town centers, downtowns, and major business districts.

Originally Posted by cqholt

That's the way it should be. Even in NYC the elevated portions were built before major development in anticipation. We should not spend billions of public funds to build transit lines to development, private developers should be encouraged by land uses to build near transit stations. Its the same argument about building a 1 station MARTA stub line to Turner Field, we should not spend millions to build a publicly-funded line to a private development, when the owners could up and move at the end of their lease.

so what exactly are you saying? you say you want stations located in existing town centers, historic areas, etc., but then you don't?

if we don't build transit to our historic areas, that is tantamount to abandoning them in favour of new areas that require further deforestation and don't have the same character. what a terrible waste of natural resources. i don't get your logic.

of course it would be easier and cheaper to build heavy rail along an interstate corridor, but there's no reason we can't serve existing development via streetcars or light rail.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by MattCW

What are you on now?

fify

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

so what exactly are you saying? you say you want stations located in existing town centers, historic areas, etc., but then you don't?

if we don't build transit to our historic areas, that is tantamount to abandoning them in favour of new areas that require further deforestation and don't have the same character. what a terrible waste of natural resources. i don't get your logic.

of course it would be easier and cheaper to build heavy rail along an interstate corridor, but there's no reason we can't serve existing development via streetcars or light rail.

I like how Decatur is setup, but its too costly to do that in north Fulton.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I like how Decatur is setup, but its too costly to do that in north Fulton.

seeing the size of downtown roswell and downtown alpharetta as compared to the size of decatur right now, i would say you're probably correct, but the future of these two downtown areas could look very much like decatur does today; that's why i think it's worth it to at least connect these areas with a streetcar line.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

seeing the size of downtown roswell and downtown alpharetta as compared to the size of decatur right now, i would say you're probably correct, but the future of these two downtown areas could look very much like decatur does today; that's why i think it's worth it to at least connect these areas with a streetcar line.

Why?

Why would you want all these areas to look like downtown Decatur?

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by bu2

Why?

Why would you want all these areas to look like downtown Decatur?

Walkable restaurants, shopping, businesses, and homes all centered around a central square with a transit station underneath. What's not to like?