MARTA transit plan includes 21 miles of light rail (Atlanta: homes, renewal)

[bu2]

Originally Posted by jsvh

But that section of the article specifically says not not think of it as US version style commuter rail. The example they use, RER in Paris, is a regional / metro hybrid. It operates elevated and underground lines. It uses overhead power lines.

Here is RER trains at the airport:



The title of that section is "Using Existing Space" in reference to rail corridors which is exactly what the Beltline is doing.

I've been on the RER. It works as the long range rail outside the core. I didn't really remember what type of power they used. Its central Paris stop has a pedestrian tunnel connecting to the Paris metro. You can tell they used existing ROW as its a LONG walk for such a transfer, at least 1/4 mile.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

Right of way acquisition alone would sink most of that. Even the current freight railways had massive government land-grants set up to make them possible in the first place.


I agree that Atlanta is in a solid position to set up new TOD, and to great effect, but I really doubt that the math would work out to make private-operation a real possibility for a network. The best that would likely happen is significant boosts to agencies' base budgets from lease payments.

In Houston they are doing studies on a rail by-pass to the west to both make it easier for trains and for cars inside the core. The state of Georgia does own that Cobb line. Its possible it could be feasible to create or facilitate alternatives that reduced freight traffic on that line, making passenger rail to Cobb much more affordable.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Actually it is. Only a narrow strip from Buckhead down through the airport is truly transit-connected. We go through this every time they build a new building near a Perimeter station, or talk about the Brookhaven TOD. Yes, those are all technically "transit connected" but they aren't "transit useful" since the vast majority of people will be driving to or from them due to the lack of transit connection elsewhere. Take the State Farm building at the Dunwoody Station. Most of the people working there are likely to come from Cobb, N. Fulton and Gwinnett. Most of those people don't have any practical transit connectivity to PC. Whatever token buses Xpress is now running to PC are little better than just sitting in traffic.

You are only highlighting a lack of transit. Not a lack or real estate to have a successful private transit + real estate development.

Keep in mind back when we had privately run transit in Atlanta we had rail transit running up into Cobb. So it can be done and it can be done here.

[cqholt]

MARTA Board to vote on timeline plan

The plan calls for the Capitol Avenue/Summerhill bus rapid transit line and the first phase of the North Avenue BRT line to be in service by 2025. It calls for the three arterial rapid transit lines to be in service by that same year.Also by 2025, under the plan:
MARTA would renovate the Bankhead station and begin studying transit alternatives for the Campbellton Road Corridor in southwest Atlanta.
Construction would begin on an Atlanta Streetcar extension east to Krog Street/Beltline Eastside Trail, the renovation of the Five Points station and a new transit center at Greenbriar Mall in southwest Atlanta.
Planning would continue for the southwest and northeast segments of the Beltline light-rail loop around central Atlanta and the Clifton Corridor light-rail line, which would stretch from the Lindbergh station to the Emory University/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention area.
The plan calls for a western extension of the streetcar to be finished before 2035. Other light-rail lines would follow, but the full light-rail network envisioned in the Atlanta expansion would not be completed until some time after 2040. And that plan includes only about two-thirds of the full Beltline loop.

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...xPY_uecKXhkQE8

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

MARTA Board to vote on timeline plan

https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt-...xPY_uecKXhkQE8

Sounds like they are right on track. (No pun intended).

They've been saying from the beginning that the Beltine rail had a 2040 time horizon. In transit terms that is right around the corner.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Sounds like they are right on track. (No pun intended).

They've been saying from the beginning that the Beltine rail had a 2040 time horizon. In transit terms that is right around the corner.

Trump Administration's FTA is violating Congressional oversight and not releasing transit funds that were awarded, so waiting for a new administration is not a bad decision.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Sounds like they are right on track. (No pun intended).

They've been saying from the beginning that the Beltine rail had a 2040 time horizon. In transit terms that is right around the corner.

It's almost the same time in the future as we now are from the year 2000. Hopefully it won't be the same as the last 20 year period.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Trump Administration's FTA is violating Congressional oversight and not releasing transit funds that were awarded, so waiting for a new administration is not a bad decision.

Well, if things go the way they did last time the next administration will probably have the same attitude toward public transit as this one. So it could be the early 2030s before we see federal funds released.

Still, in terms of transit development that's not a long time.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by arjay57

Well, if things go the way they did last time the next administration will probably have the same attitude toward public transit as this one. So it could be the early 2030s before we see federal funds released.

Still, in terms of transit development that's not a long time.

Well its long past time we quit awarding transit funds for economic development. There are enough needs that are real. We need transit that actually meets existing needs, not "build it and they will come."

[SAAN]

Why is it going to take 5 yrs to get a BRT bus service going and 15 yrs for the beltine to be completed on a right of way they already have.


Sadly many of us will be dead before metro ATL gets transit where it needs to be going. Only $4-5 gas prices over a extended time would speed that up.