Atlanta Beltline officials unveiled a $3.5 billion plan Tuesday that, for the first time, details a near-complete route and price tag for transit along the entire 22-mile loop.
The plan establishes a route for light rail in the northwest quadrant, which at 5.5 miles is both the largest segment of the Beltline and one that has proved to be the trickiest to design because it’s the only area not located in an abandoned railroad corridor.
After two years of study, Beltline staff designed a route that runs close to where the trail will be once fully built — a route they say limits the impact along Peachtree Road but still provides access to Piedmont Hospital, the largest employer within the Beltline’s footprint.
With a design for the northwest quadrant complete, the only segment of the Beltline left without a transit plan is near the Eastside Trail, which at one point was where the first light rail construction was set to begin — last year. Those plans faced community opposition and, earlier this year, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said he no longer backed starting there and wanted to begin construction on the Southside instead.
The latest plan from Beltline officials still calls for extending the existing Atlanta Streetcar east, as previous plans have, but it’s not clear where the route would connect to the Beltline. Staff said multiple possibilities are being considered for the light rail route in the area near the Krog Street Tunnel that connects the Eastside and Southeast trails. It’s another tricky connection because of the active railroad tracks.
Several attendees on Zoom and Facebook, where the Beltline presentation was livestreamed, expressed frustration at the changing plans.
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
The first question fielded by Shaun Green, the Beltline’s principal engineer, bemoaned the “standstill” and asked how to protect the newest plans from being abandoned down the road should the political winds change again.
“There’s things I can control as an engineer and there’s things I cannot,” Green said. “We’re hoping that this is (a plan) that can carry the day, but I can only control what I control.”
As to where the first light rail construction will start, Green said he could only repeat what the mayor has said: on the Southside. By the end of the year, the Beltline hopes to create an implementation and funding plan that will guide the project’s next steps.
The $3.5 billion price tag doesn’t account for four MARTA infill stations along the Beltline that Dickens proposed last year, and for which MARTA has done limited planning. In 2018, they were estimated to cost $350 million total.
The light rail plans aren’t contingent on the infill stations, Green said.
“Part of the implementation plan is to figure out how to afford it and over what time frame,” Green said. “We’re not going to be able to drop this from the sky. It will take time to implement … but hopefully we’ll be able to find the money that we need to pull this together.”
He said one potential funding source could be the Beltline tax allocation district, which Dickens has proposed extending beyond 2030. Another potential source is the More MARTA half-penny sales tax revenue, which was already slated to pay for the Streetcar East Extension plans that have been scuttled.
Matthew Rao, who leads the Beltline Rail Now advocacy group, said he was encouraged to see the Atlanta Beltline is still recommending light rail around the whole loop in light of consultant research into the possibility of autonomous vehicles, gondolas and other alternatives. But Rao said he was also frustrated at the delays.
“We are at least a decade away from what was presented tonight,” Rao said. “If everything had moved forward as planned, we would have already broken ground. We’d be under construction right now and we’d be headed for a revenue service date of early 2027. That’s what we’ve given up.”
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
In addition to unveiling the route for the northwest, Beltline officials proposed station locations along the southernmost section for the first time. The Beltline is proposing six stations along the southwest section and seven stations along the southeast. Proposed stops include ones near the Lee + White entertainment district, Murphy Crossing and the terminus of MARTA’s Summerhill bus rapid transit route.
In all, the service plan calls for three loops of light rail encircling the city. One would run the full length of the Beltline. Additionally, by extending the existing Atlanta Streetcar route east and west, two other routes can be established: a northern loop and a southern loop. All three would run clockwise and counterclockwise, with trains arriving at each station every 10 minutes on average.
In total, 24.2 miles of light rail are proposed, for an average cost of $125 million per mile.
The costliest segment will be the northwest quadrant, in part because it requires securing right-of-way access from CSX, which operates an active railroad along the corridor. But the route recommended by Beltline officials is the cheapest of the options considered, at about $800 million. Other alignments are estimated to cost more than $1 billion.
In addition to the lowest cost, the recommended route is faster because less of the route operates in general traffic lanes. Compared to other options, the proposed route is about five minutes faster in either direction.
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