Train line discussed for Turner Field

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A 15-year-old proposal to build a magnetically levitated train between MARTA and Turner Field resurfaced in political talk last week. But don’t look for the space-age people mover at ballgames any time soon.

The owner of a company that proposed the project, Tony Morris, said he had a good visit with MARTA CEO Beverly Scott when she came to his test track in Powder Springs in April. But he hasn’t talked much with MARTA since then.

“But again, they’re broke, they’re bankrupt,” said Morris, the CEO of American Maglev Technology. “Unless Mr. Obama gave them a check, it wouldn’t matter because they can’t do anything.”

Scott said she liked what she saw during her visit and was enthusiastic about the idea of encouraging a Georgia business to lead in transit innovation. But as far as she could tell, she said Friday, the train wasn’t ready for prime time.

At a meeting last week of the legislative committee that oversees MARTA, state Rep. Harry Geisinger (R-Roswell) grilled Scott on what was up with the proposal from about 1994, made for the Atlanta Olympic Games. It could take the place of bus shuttles, he suggested.

“I understand they have all the permits that are necessary as far as the Braves shuttle is concerned and could proceed with private financing,” Geisinger said. “And I would hope that you would seriously look into what they’re offering. ... It’s a doable possibility.”

“Well, we’re talking, we’re looking,” Scott assured Geisinger. “I would tell you that they’re in kind of really pre-concept, but they’ve got something that’s a first article that’s out there, and most folks just talk and never have anything like that.”

She echoed Geisinger’s praise for the company, noting that the owner claims to be able to build a line much more cheaply than more established companies abroad. She qualified that to say MARTA was “drilling into the numbers with them.”

MARTA’s funding picture is indeed bleak.

But there are some bright spots related to the federal stimulus fund. Today, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected to announce a stimulus grant of $10.8 million to place solar panels on MARTA’s Laredo bus garage. MARTA staff declined to comment on that before the announcement.