what would be the ideal transit solution for clayton county? (Atlanta: real estate, leasing)

[bryantm3]

i came up with this idea; both could be heavy rail, or the blue line could simply be light rail. what do you think? it could have some interest from the feds since it would connect to the new international terminal at the airport and also the national archives building in lake city/morrow.

http://goo.gl/maps/bDCV8

[MattCW]

For the distances and densities involved, commuter rail makes the most sense especially once you get as far as Lovejoy, but even as far as Jonesboro. The International station can be where Charles W Grant Parkway meets GA-3 with shuttle bus or even people mover service to the terminal. As much as I support rail service, your blue line through Riverdale could be served by some type of Limited-stop bus service possibly to the terminal, and/or Hapeville (commuter rail station) or the East Point MARTA station.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

i came up with this idea; both could be heavy rail, or the blue line could simply be light rail. what do you think?

http://goo.gl/maps/bDCV8

I like the map that you put together and I like the idea of extending some type of high-capacity transit (be it bus or rail transit) down Georgia Highway 85 through Riverdale, which does make some kind of sense seeing as how the City of Riverdale wants to develop and redevelop the area along GA 85 between Adams Street and Roberts Drive into high-density mixed-use corridor over the long-term.

I also like the idea of having a high-capacity passenger rail transit line run directly to the International Terminal on the east side of the airport, and I like the idea of a high-capacity passenger rail stop being located at the Farmers Market in Forest Park.

In addition to the high-capacity transit lines that you have proposed on your map, I would also implement high-capacity passenger rail transit service along the Norfolk Southern S-Line between East Point and Forest Park so that historic Downtown Hapeville, the site of the future Aerotropolis Atlanta (SW of I-75 & Old Dixie Hwy on the site of the old Ford Plant), and the erstwhile town of Mountain View at US 19-41 Old Dixie Hwy & C.W. Grant Pkwy (which because of its close location to the Int'l Terminal is an area that is poised for much industrial and possibly commercial development) are also served by a high-level of transit service.

I would also implement high-capacity passenger rail transit service (likely high-frequency regional commuter rail service) along the Norfolk Southern H-Line that runs parallel to the east of I-75 between Atlanta and Macon with local rail transit service operating between Fort Gillem and Locust Grove (by way of the NS spur line that runs through Ft. Gillem and through the I-675/I-75 Southeast Metro suburban areas of Ellenwood, Rex, Stockbridge, Eagles Landing, Flippen, and the seat of government of fast-growing Henry County at McDonough) with express service operating on the NS H-Line between Ft. Gillem and Downtown Atlanta.

Originally Posted by bryantm3

it could have some interest from the feds since it would connect to the new international terminal at the airport and also the national archives building in lake city/morrow.

This is an excellent point.

Though with federal funding for transportation projects becoming more difficult to come by in an increasingly-volatile budget and political environment at all levels of government, the best way to fund an expansion of transit in Clayton County (and elsewhere throughout the Atlanta region and the state of Georgia) in this volatile economic and political environment where government funding for local transportation projects is increasingly-scarce would most-likely be with private investment and user fees.

We could get the funding needed for this substantial expansion of transit service south of Atlanta by bundling the proposed high-capacity transit lines with major roads like US 19-41, I-75, GA 85 & I-675 into a multimodal transportation super-corridor and term-leasing the multimodal transportation super-corridor out to private investors for a period of between 30-100 years.

In return for getting to collect and keep all of the profits from mixed-use real estate developments along transit lines (particularly at and around stations) and inflation-indexed distance-based user fees (distance-based fares on transit lines and distance-based tolls on major roads), the private investors leasing the multimodal transportation supercorridor from the public would be responsible for ALL design, construction, operational and maintenance costs of the real estate/user fee-funded transit lines (rail transit and connecting bus transit lines) and user fee-funded major roads during the life of the lease.

Originally Posted by MattCW

For the distances and densities involved, commuter rail makes the most sense especially once you get as far as Lovejoy, but even as far as Jonesboro. The International station can be where Charles W Grant Parkway meets GA-3 with shuttle bus or even people mover service to the terminal. As much as I support rail service, your blue line through Riverdale could be served by some type of Limited-stop bus service possibly to the terminal, and/or Hapeville (commuter rail station) or the East Point MARTA station.

These are excellent suggestions also, as I completely agree that at the very-least regional commuter rail service should be operating along the Norfolk Southern S-Line right-of-way between Atlanta and Lovejoy.

Though, with the importance of Jonesboro as the site of the seat of government of a very-important and relatively densely-populated urban county in Clayton, and with the importance of other locations along the existing NS S-Line corridor (like the future Aerotropolis mixed-use development at I-75 & US 19-41 Central Ave/Old Dixie Highway; fast-growing Clayton State University; and the still-important cluster of retail and industrial businesses near Southlake Mall), along with rising peak-hour congestion on US 19-41 and I-75 South, regional heavy-rail service (along the lines of Northern California's BART which is a regional heavy rail system that performs many commuter rail-like functions with heavy rail lines as long as 50 miles in length to stations in outlying areas, as opposed to a purely intra-city heavy rail system like in older Northeastern cities) would most-likely be the best option for the NS S-Line corridor between the East Point MARTA Station and at-least as far south as the Clayton County Justice Center (courthouse, sheriff's department headquarters, county jail, etc) just south of Jonesboro, but preferably as far south as Hampton near the site of the Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The part of the NS S-Line from south of Hampton to Macon and beyond (Warner Robins, Perry and Middle Georgia) would be regional commuter and intercity passenger rail service only.

South Metro Atlanta not only needs a high-level of transit service because of the rising traffic challenges on US 19-41 and I-75, but also because of the significant imbalance in economic development opportunities between the much more-popular and powerful north side of the Atlanta region above I-20 and the less-popular and less-powerful south side of the Atlanta region below I-20.

The south side of the Atlanta region below I-20 (the Southern Crescent) will most-likely never quite have the same overwhelming economic development opportunities as the north side (the Golden Crescent), but connecting various locations throughout the less-advantaged Southern Crescent by way of high-capacity passenger rail (and bus) transit to the world's busiest airport and the job and activity centers of the Northside will help the Southside to have more important economic development opportunities than it might have otherwise.

[Gulch]

Clayton joins MARTA, and they build an extended Hapeville Branch (pretty much the green line in your map)

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

... it could have some interest from the feds since it would connect to the new international terminal at the airport

Dumb question but why connect to the international terminal? Are there that many folks flying out of Clayton county?

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Dumb question but why connect to the international terminal? Are there that many folks flying out of Clayton county?

to make a direction connection from MARTA to the international terminal. it's not a problem for people travelling to the airport via MARTA, but everyone who arrives on an international flight has no MARTA access, since they're checked out at the new terminal. they currently have to wait for a jitney bus to drive them around to the other terminal, which can take an hour with wait times. this way everyone who checks in at the international terminal can get on the train immediately. it would probably improve our image amongst international visitors as well.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

to make a direction connection from MARTA to the international terminal. it's not a problem for people travelling to the airport via MARTA, but everyone who arrives on an international flight has no MARTA access, since they're checked out at the new terminal. they currently have to wait for a jitney bus to drive them around to the other terminal, which can take an hour with wait times. this way everyone who checks in at the international terminal can get on the train immediately. it would probably improve our image amongst international visitors as well.

Sorry, guess I am misunderstanding.

[bryantm3]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Sorry, guess I am misunderstanding.

no, it's okay; i didn't know it either. the "plane train" does connect to the international terminal, but it's a secure zone; therefore, you'd have to go back through customs to get back to the other terminal where MARTA is.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Clayton joins MARTA, and they build an extended Hapeville Branch (pretty much the green line in your map)

But how do you run it? Do you suddenly make one side the Gold line and one side the Red line? Or do you try and run extra trains?

[cqholt]

While it be great to see extended HRT, clayton county doesn't have the density to support it. BRT lines are the best answer.