Here comes the Atlanta streetcar: MARTA sets bus detours

By David Ibata

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

MARTA has announced changes to seven bus routes, effective Saturday, in downtown Atlanta to make way for construction of the $72 million streetcar line from Centennial Olympic Park to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.

The changes affect Route Nos. 1 – Centennial Olympic Park/Coronet Way; 3 – Martin Luther King Jr. Drive/Auburn Avenue; 16 – Noble; 99 – Boulevard/Monroe Drive; 110 Peachtree Street “The Peach”; 155 Windsor Street/Lakewood Avenue; and 186 – Rainbow Drive/South DeKalb.

The changes will remain in effect until further notice. Details of the reroutes are posted on this MARTA website.

Atlanta received $47 million in federal funds in July for the streetcar project. The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District will pick up the $25 million cost not covered by the federal government.

When the system begins operations, scheduled for 2013, four streetcars will circulate on the 12-station, 2.7-mile route, with a transfer point to MARTA at the Peachtree Center rail station.

Atlanta city officials hope the line will rejuvenate downtown and the Auburn and Edgewood Avenue corridors, and perhaps pave the way for a system that eventually would operate along the length of Peachtree Street and link to a light rail or streetcar system operating along the planned Beltline.

-- Staff writer Bill Steiden contributed to this article.