Transit group has hand out for $50 billion plan

In 2009 a new metro Atlanta group will try to get the money for a $50 billion mass transit plan, according to the Transit Planning Board.

Whether that’s an urban fantasy or the seeds of Atlanta’s next great rebirth, only time will tell.

The Transit Planning Board has spent nearly three years agreeing on a collection of new mass transit projects that the metro region needs in coming decades. The list, called “Concept 3,” would include commuter rail, rapid-transit bus and streetcar projects, and is supposed to be more cohesive than the region’s current hodgepodge of services.

The board was created to try to meld ideas from existing groups such as local governments, MARTA, the Atlanta Regional Commission and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

Now, the Transit Planning Board has renamed itself and given itself the new task of convincing public officials to start funding the projects. The new panel will meet next year as the Transit Implementation Board, according to a statement.

Its own existence is not written in stone. If money starts flowing for projects, legislators or voters will probably say what group manages the program.

The board has had a rocky road, sometimes not even being able to muster a quorum at its meetings.

Board members have said it was unprecedented to get elected officials from across the region to work together and agree on an idea for a mass transit system. Even so, they don’t look forward to asking for infrastructure investments in the midst of a recession.

“This year has filled me with optimism regarding what our region can accomplish when we work together,” Eldrin Bell, chairman of the board and Clayton County, said in a statement. “Now, however, the hard part begins.”