MARTA News (East Point, Alpharetta, Forest Park: stations, commuter, park)

[cranberrysaus]

I used to live off the 150 route which has a 40 minute interval which is just ridiculous. Most of the time it was just outright faster to walk to/from Dunwoody station.


I guess MARTA felt the same way because it was one of the routes suspended during COVID.

[MattCW]

Headways greater than 7.5 minutes (8vph) should only be factors of 60: 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60. And anything greater than 15 should be reserved for after hours, and anything greater than 20 should be long distance only. Xpress operating all day from Conyers or Snellville or Acworth can be 30-60 minute headways, but all of MARTA's buses should be 15 minutes or less throughout the day.

Originally Posted by primaltech

Honestly, eliminate all bus routes and bus stops, and replace them with bus lines and bus stations. With much fewer of each, and much higher quality, with all the stations being permanent and sheltered and named, and at least as nice as the streetcar stations. (And the bus always stops at every station on the line, like a train line). And put the lines and the stations on the official MARTA map, so that to somebody visiting Atlanta and looking at the map for the first time, the system actually looks like more than a simple plus sign that hardly goes anywhere. Make the bus lines thinner lines on the map, with smaller dots and fonts for the stations, but still all on there.

So for example. You're on the train originating from North Springs, and you travel to Buckhead station (Peachtree Rd @ 400). There you transfer to the Peachtree Line bus, which comes very frequently, and there's a digital display indicating approximately when the next southbound or northbound bus arrives. You jump on the southbound, and the automated voice announces, "Next stop, Piedmont @ Peachtree station, transfer to Piedmont Line". Then after that, Buckhead Village station. One station for that whole area, not multiple stops street after street. And the fare is paid for at the kiosk there, not on the bus.

Then the next station is Rumson Rd, half a mile down. Then a handful more, down thru Brookwood. Until it's like "Next stop, Arts Center. Transfer to Red and Gold lines". But the bus part of the station is at the corner of 16th St and Peachtree, with clear signage and walkway to the train part of the station for transfer. Then the bus can just keep going, without all the delay of turning off the main road and looping around and such. Then the next station is at 14th St, "Exit here for Piedmont Park". Then the next is Midtown Station, transfer to Red, Gold, and 10th Street lines.

Etc etc. Focus on corridors, like Ponce, Northside, Briarcliff, Clairmont, could all be similar lines on the map, showing all this transit connectivity. And you don't need all these constant stops. Just key stations, and people can walk a couple blocks to their destinations. Like the Briarcliff Line would stop at N Druid Hills Rd, and then Lavista Rd, and then Clifton Rd.

People would ride the heck out of a system like that. I definitely would when I'm in town.

The problem with fewer bus routes is you lose coverage and thus ridership. Also, trying to show them all on the rail maps would be information overload. Now showing key routes like the ART and BRT routes is different. We don't need to reinvent the wheel by running everything as a "bus line" just run the dang local service on direct routes with functional headways!

[cwkimbro]

MARTA my scrap Clayton Commuter rail citing costs after being unable to share rail corridor with Norfolk Southern.

I knew it wasn't going to be as simple to work through as some thought, but I'm surprised it was scraped. This was to be the token project to help get the idea of commuter rail off the ground.

https://www.ajc.com/politics/marta-m...D2W3REUCIHK74/

MARTA and Clayton County may scrapplans for a commuter rail line through the county because a freight railroad won’t allow passenger trains in its right of way.

MARTA had hoped to build a passenger rail line connecting its East Point Station to Jonesboro and Lovejoy. The agency planned to construct the line on existing Norfolk Southern railroad right of way, but MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker told county commissioners Tuesday the freight giant will not permit the passenger trains on its corridor.

That means MARTA would have to acquire nearly 300 business and residential parcels, most of them in Clayton County for the commuter line. That would escalate the price of a project expected to cost $1.7 billion to $2.3 billion to build.

....

[MattCW]

In other words, MARTA was being unreasonable in what they were asking for.

[cwkimbro]

Quite possibly the case, but I also don't have specifics on discussions between NS and MARTA beyond this.

When Georgia looked into the Atlanta - Macon rail link one of the plans was help upgrade the entire corridor of NS secondary track. I wonder how much that could/would help Norfolk Southern in allowing building in their Right of Way.

[Gulch]

I wonder if it would be worth it just to make it HRT.

[cwkimbro]

I know they don't have the money for it without additional outside funding. The corridor would be considerably shorter too.

Given the 24 mile distance maybe it would make sense to try for LRT. Tara Boulevard could be worked to have median tracks with traffic light/RR crossings at lower use intersections and selective bridges at busier cross roads through a majority of the corridor. It could possibly cut over to I-85 through Riverdale on the central part.


The northern part of the route would take some thinking into, but LRT provides flexibility over RR tracks or HRT tracks.

[Need4Camaro]

To be fair the escalation between $1.7 Bil to $2.3 Bil is a smaller increase than I was expecting. Transitioning the entire project to Heavy Rail will likely not avoid those costs but it would avoid grade level crossings and keep the system more integrated.

The RoW issue does seem a bit odd that we are just finding out about this now though. The plan has been on the books for some time. Why would Norfolk Southern wait until now to tell us that?

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I know they don't have the money for it without additional outside funding. The corridor would be considerably shorter too.

Given the 24 mile distance maybe it would make sense to try for LRT. Tara Boulevard could be worked to have median tracks with traffic light/RR crossings at lower use intersections and selective bridges at busier cross roads through a majority of the corridor. It could possibly cut over to I-85 through Riverdale on the central part.


The northern part of the route would take some thinking into, but LRT provides flexibility over RR tracks or HRT tracks.

I get the premonition that some transit is better than none but if we are going the LRT route I would rather them just make it ART / BRT with priority signaling for busses. It would have almost just as much efficiency and for a far cheaper price tag. Having used DART, I don’t think LRT does a good job over long distances especially in suburban areas. If it were central core areas like Beltline then yea I’m all for it. This line specifically to Clayton however would remind me of the blue line in S.Dallas which also goes through the median of avenues and parkways. It’s very slow.

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Need4Camaro

To be fair the escalation between $1.7 Bil to $2.3 Bil is a smaller increase than I was expecting. Transitioning the entire project to Heavy Rail will likely not avoid those costs but it would avoid grade level crossings and keep the system more integrated.

I think the article meant the cost of building it without the NS ROW would fall between $1.7B and $2.3B, not that the cost was rising from $1.7B to $2.3B. Perhaps I'm wrong.

The original Regional Transportation plan earmarking approx. $900m for the whole line, across 2 phases. This was without MARTA engineering estimates.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

I think the article meant the cost of building it without the NS ROW would call between $1.7B and $2.3B, not that the cost was rising from $1.7B to $2.3B. Perhaps I'm wrong.

The original Regional Transportation plan earmarking approx. $900m for the whole line, across 2 phases. This was without MARTA engineering estimates.

Ah. Ok then yeah that’s a sizable increase.