ATLANTA: Beltline supporters rally against high-speed rail option

People came to Saturday’s rally on the edge of Piedmont Park on foot and by car and bicycle, some of them bearing signs, all with a common message: Keep the Beltline on track in Atlanta.

The planned 22-mile loop of transit, parks and trails around the city appears threatened by a move by Amtrak and the Georgia Department of Transportation to preserve a segment of the proposed Beltline —- currently owned by the Norfolk Southern railroad —- for heavy or high-speed rail use.

A crowd of about 250 gathered in northeast Atlanta, behind a residential area next to a portion of the rail line overgrown by grass, to decry the Transportation Department’s attempt to get the U.S. Surface Transportation Board to stop Norfolk Southern from abandoning the line. If the abandonment were to happen, the right-of-way could be used for the Beltline.

The protesters also were critical of Amtrak’s attempt to use its federal status to take over the corridor through condemnation.

Many said the neighborhood simply was not the place for high-speed passenger trains.

“This [Beltline] project is going to help us. We want to see it come through,” said Tony Thaxton Jr., who held a sign identifying the Capitol View neighborhood where he lives. Running high-speed rail alongside Piedmont Park, he said, is “like running it across I-285.”

Organizers of the rally urged the crowd to write to their legislators expressing their support for the Beltline.

“The most important thing about the Beltline is what it does for us citywide,” said Atlanta Councilwoman Anne Fauver, one of several public officials at the rally. “It’s the kind of thing that makes a huge difference [in the city].”

City officials hope the Beltline will attract pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods within walking distance of light-rail transit stops. They say the project, estimated to cost $2 billion to $3 billion, would create an area where people can work, live and play.

Amtrak has maintained that the Beltline corridor was “the only feasible way” to route trains to a future multimodal transportation center at Five Points. A western alignment to downtown Atlanta would be too time-consuming and make its service uncompetitive, the intercity passenger rail carrier has said.

Currently, Amtrak trains bypass downtown. They stop at a station at Peachtree Road and I-85 just north of Midtown.

“I would like to see high-speed commuter rail,” said Grant Park resident Louis Ingle. “But not through Piedmont Park.”