MARTA to make an $8 billion pitch to change the face of Atlanta (race, progressive)

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

What I still do not understand, is why go through all this trouble? The state alread has a transit agency that is acceptable to the outter counties. Why bother with the political fight of MARTA at all? Why not just use freaking GRTA?! There wouldn't need to be a constitutional ammendment for its expansion.

Political appeasement.

[primaltech]

As long as what we end up with is one single unified transit agency, that absorbs and takes over all the rest, and is funded and operated throughout the 10-county region, and keeps the trains running on time, then I'm sure most of us will end up being happy with it.

Cagle has to appeal to the Red counties, not the Blue counties, which are already sold on transit. Especially since he doesn't hold the governor office yet. When he does however, then he can set in motion a plan that might end up pleasing the city as well as the suburbs.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

You got it. Bringing in private investment to MARTA is something that Cagle has been talking about for awhile now as he made some comments about doing just that back before the start of a previous legislative session (I think that he said those comments at a few chamber of commerce breakfasts in Athens and Gwinnett back before the start of the 2015 legislative session, if I remember correctly).

One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that Cagle has a really close relationship with the state's business community (particularly the business community on the Northside in Cobb/North Fulton/Gwinnett/Hall counties). So everything that Cagle is saying about transit is likely what he is hearing from the real estate development and chamber-of-commerce types who power his political campaigns and pay his expenses.

Well, that I would be interested in seeing.

Originally Posted by cqholt

Couldn't turning over power of MARTA to profit-driven developers and business interest mean that poor areas will suffer from service cuts, most likely bus routes, while rail (which attracts a lot development money) expands?

As any business, transit will go where their customers are. So you won't get many expensive pet-project expansions to neighborhoods that won't produce many riders. But if an area (rich or poor) are producing a lot of paying riders, they will continue to get service. Many of the world's best transit systems are run as private companies or P3s.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

As long as what we end up with is one single unified transit agency, that absorbs and takes over all the rest, and is funded and operated throughout the 10-county region, and keeps the trains running on time, then I'm sure most of us will end up being happy with it.

Cagle has to appeal to the Red counties, not the Blue counties, which are already sold on transit. Especially since he doesn't hold the governor office yet. When he does however, then he can set in motion a plan that might end up pleasing the city as well as the suburbs.

Not is it comes at the expense of service cuts to areas that have been supporting transit for 40 years.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Not is it comes at the expense of service cuts to areas that have been supporting transit for 40 years.

Sadly, those communities don't give money to GOP candidates, so they'll get the shaft.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

What I still do not understand, is why go through all this trouble? The state alread has a transit agency that is acceptable to the outter counties. Why bother with the political fight of MARTA at all? Why not just use freaking GRTA?! There wouldn't need to be a constitutional ammendment for its expansion.

Money.

This is all about the money.

Specifically, the massive amount of money that can be made from TOD on the land at and around MARTA stops and even along major bus lines in the city.

Also, real estate developers and business interests in Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett counties (and beyond) want to be connected directly (by way of high-capacity transit lines) to the world-leading Atlanta Airport and the extremely lucrative convention and tourism business in Downtown Atlanta (Georgia World Congress Center, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Georgia Aquarium, etc).

There has been talk of folding MARTA into GRTA for years as a way of making transit more acceptable to conservative OTP voters. This talk was especially prevalent during the administration of former governor Roy Barnes but died out after Sonny Perdue beat Barnes in an upset in 2002 and took office in 2003.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

Money.

This is all about the money.

Specifically, the massive amount of money that can be made from TOD on the land at and around MARTA stops and even along major bus lines in the city.

Also, real estate developers and business interests in Cobb, North Fulton and Gwinnett counties (and beyond) want to be connected directly (by way of high-capacity transit lines) to the world-leading Atlanta Airport and the extremely lucrative convention and tourism business in Downtown Atlanta (Georgia World Congress Center, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Georgia Aquarium, etc).

There has been talk of folding MARTA into GRTA for years as a way of making transit more acceptable to conservative OTP voters. This talk was especially prevalent during the administration of former governor Roy Barnes but died out after Sonny Perdue beat Barnes in an upset in 2002 and took office in 2003.

Then they can encourage those counties to join MARTA. North Fulton had the opportunity to get a rail line and they backed out, why do they only want one if ran by white, conservatives?

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by jsvh

As any business, transit will go where their customers are. So you won't get many expensive pet-project expansions to neighborhoods that won't produce many riders. But if an area (rich or poor) are producing a lot of paying riders, they will continue to get service. Many of the world's best transit systems are run as private companies or P3s.

The prime example of a public transit company that is operated as a P3 is in Hong Kong where the 24% of the corporation that runs the transit system is privately-owned and the corporation as a whole is worth over a quarter-of-a-TRILLION dollars ($250 billion) with TOD/transit-oriented real estate development at and around transit stops and along transit lines being the basis of their highly-profitable business model.

Atlanta's transit system will likely never get to $250 billion, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that a regional transit system in Atlanta could get to between $50-100 billion in value using TOD as the basis of a profitable business model.

....Which is why we are suddenly seeing this increasing amount of interest in MARTA by state politicians like Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle....Because of the massive amount of money that can be made from TOD in the 21st Century in much the same way that massive profits were made from automobile-oriented development in the 20th Century.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The prime example of a public transit company that is operated as a P3 is in Hong Kong where the 24% of the corporation that runs the transit system is privately-owned and the corporation as a whole is worth over a quarter-of-a-TRILLION dollars ($250 billion) with TOD/transit-oriented real estate development at and around transit stops and along transit lines being the basis of their highly-profitable business model.

Atlanta's transit system will likely never get to $250 billion, but it is not out of the realm of possibility that a regional transit system in Atlanta could get to between $50-100 billion in value using TOD as the basis of a profitable business model.

....Which is why we are suddenly seeing this increasing amount of interest in MARTA by state politicians like Georgia Lt. Governor Casey Cagle....Because of the massive amount of money that can be made from TOD in the 21st Century in much the same way that massive profits were made from automobile-oriented development in the 20th Century.

So what do you personally think it going to happen?

Do you think they will keep Keith?

Is there a way they can do this and still keep the MARTA brand?

Will the city of Atlanta and Dekalb have to vote in order for the takeover to happen?

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Then they can encourage those counties to join MARTA. North Fulton had the opportunity to get a rail line and they backed out, why do they only want one if ran by white, conservatives?

Because Cagle's way ensures that the "wrong people" (mostly-black liberal Democrats) don't control such a valuable asset.