MARTA looking at light rail, bus line options to expand the Clifton corridor (Atlanta: how much, maintenance)

[arjay57]

What's wrong with just having a nice bus line, with lots of sleek new state of the art coaches, running on short headways? Give them signal priority and some good stops with places to pull over.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by arjay57

What's wrong with just having a nice bus line, with lots of sleek new state of the art coaches, running on short headways? Give them signal priority and some good stops with places to pull over.

Have you ever paid attention to Atlanta's arterial streets????

It would still be really slow.

In Houston I was once trying to figure out a way to combine commuting with exercise. I planned to take the bus to work and then run the 7 miles home. I figured out that even with zero headway and ignoring the walk to the bus stop, on most days, I could drive to work, drive home and get back to work before the bus even got there. It made no sense.

[primaltech]

I just meant to make the point, let's see what the exact BRT alignment and design and plan looks like, in their presentations this summer, then judge and complain from there. At least in theory, BRT can be good. It's just MARTA seems to be wanting to focus on making cheap as possible BRT, instead of good as possible BRT. And the latter is the only BRT worth even having.

[SEAandATL]

Originally Posted by primaltech

Once upon a time (the 1980's), Atlanta and MARTA was building serious mass rapid transit. It can be done.

Consider yourself (and the city) blessed that we got the existing HRT system when we did. Ironically it was because Seattle rejected it. Imagine if we didn't have that now.

[JulianMabowski]

Originally Posted by SEAandATL

Consider yourself (and the city) blessed that we got the existing HRT system when we did. Ironically it was because Seattle rejected it. Imagine if we didn't have that now.

Yep I always tell people this. Atlanta was never suppose to get heavy rail, it's the least dense major city in the world, it could've never justified heavy rail with the type of urban planning it has. Look at its peers, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Phoenix, they all have light rail which is what Atlanta should have. It was pure luck, Seattle rejected the money (which was incredibly stupid in retrospect. Seattle with MARTA heavy rail system would be insane), and the feds instead gave the transit dollars to atlanta. I honestly don't think another mile of heavy rail is ever being built in my lifetime in this city. Maybe light rail if we get lucky again. Just gonna have to settle with unprotected bus lanes and more million dollar "reports" and "studies" from America's worst transit agency.


Atleast the beltline is coming along! I hope they can replicate some of the vibrancy of the EST on the west side.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

Yep I always tell people this. Atlanta was never suppose to get heavy rail, it's the least dense major city in the world, it could've never justified heavy rail with the type of urban planning it has. Look at its peers, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Phoenix, they all have light rail which is what Atlanta should have. It was pure luck, Seattle rejected the money (which was incredibly stupid in retrospect. Seattle with MARTA heavy rail system would be insane), and the feds instead gave the transit dollars to atlanta. I honestly don't think another mile of heavy rail is ever being built in my lifetime in this city. Maybe light rail if we get lucky again. Just gonna have to settle with unprotected bus lanes and more million dollar "reports" and "studies" from America's worst transit agency.


Atleast the beltline is coming along! I hope they can replicate some of the vibrancy of the EST on the west side.

I could not disagree more with all of this post, but the most glaring is labeling MARTA as "America's worst transit agency."

That's just idiotic, on several levels.

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by JMatl

I could not disagree more with all of this post, but the most glaring is labeling MARTA as "America's worst transit agency."

That's just idiotic, on several levels.

Thank you for calling out that asinine post.

[JulianMabowski]

Originally Posted by aries4118

Thank you for calling out that asinine post.

What's asinine? MARTA has not been upgraded in over 2 decades. Millions of dollars spent on studies and reports with nothing to show for it. Not a single mile of rail has been laid in decades meanwhile our peers continue to expand on transit. They tell neighboring counties they'll give them rail and then later pull a switcheroo and want to instead go with useless BRT. Have you guys been to other cities in the country? LA is heavily expanding its system, Seattle is building the most out of any American city, by 2040 they'll have a transit system on par with DC and Chicago. San Diego just finished building out a new line. Charlotte is expanding its light rail system. New York, Boston and Chicago are all working on expansions. Minneapolis is expanding its transit. Even broke/crime-ridden St.Louis is working on expansions for its Metrolink! WTF is Atlanta doing???



That road diet on Peachtree got ripped out. The multi million dollar streetcar is completely useless and a waste of money. The one corridor that could support lightrail (emory) is getting freaking buses? are you serious? And somehow when I call out this BS, i'm the bad guy? lol. Everybody is content with straight mediocrity in this city. Atlanta already surpassed Miami in population and is projected to move pass Philly soon. It will soon be with the big boys with a small town mindset.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

What's asinine? MARTA has not been upgraded in over 2 decades. Millions of dollars spent on studies and reports with nothing to show for it. Not a single mile of rail has been laid in decades meanwhile our peers continue to expand on transit. They tell neighboring counties they'll give them rail and then later pull a switcheroo and want to instead go with useless BRT. Have you guys been to other cities in the country? LA is heavily expanding its system, Seattle is building the most out of any American city, by 2040 they'll have a transit system on par with DC and Chicago. San Diego just finished building out a new line. Charlotte is expanding its light rail system. New York, Boston and Chicago are all working on expansions. Minneapolis is expanding its transit. Even broke/crime-ridden St.Louis is working on expansions for its Metrolink! WTF is Atlanta doing???



That road diet on Peachtree got ripped out. The multi million dollar streetcar is completely useless and a waste of money. The one corridor that could support lightrail (emory) is getting freaking buses? are you serious? And somehow when I call out this BS, i'm the bad guy? lol. Everybody is content with straight mediocrity in this city. Atlanta already surpassed Miami in population and is projected to move pass Philly soon. It will soon be with the big boys with a small town mindset.

Why do we have to measure everything by rail? What's wrong with being a car-oriented city? Can all six million of us be that wrong?

The fact is we are working on rail but we're doing it the Atlanta way. That means we take a multi-generational approach. I'll stick my neck out and guarantee that within 50-100 years you will see some new rail somewhere in this town.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by JulianMabowski

Look at its peers, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Phoenix, they all have light rail which is what Atlanta should have. It was pure luck, Seattle rejected the money (which was incredibly stupid in retrospect. Seattle with MARTA heavy rail system would be insane), and the feds instead gave the transit dollars to atlanta.

That is a gross misreading of what actually happened and it’s hardly luck. Seattle rejecting federal funds for their transit system had zero to do with whether or not MARTA built out heavy rail instead of LRT.