STREET CAR LAUNCHES
What: The Atlanta Streetcar will open to passengers on Tuesday.
Who: Mayor Kasim Reed, MARTA CEO Keith Parker, Federal Transit Administration Regional Administrator Yvette Taylor and Atlanta Downtown Improvement District President A.J. Robinson will take an inaugural ride at 10:30 AM on Tuesday. The city and transit leaders will then hold a grand opening celebration near Woodruff Park at 11 AM.
For more: Visit http://streetcar.atlantaga.gov
Check AJC.com for complete and comprehensive coverage of the streetcar opening.
ABOUT THE ATLANTA STREETCAR
What you need to know if you plan to ride.
Stops:
The Atlanta Streetcar travels a 2.7-mile loop from Centennial Olympic Park in the northwest to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in the east. There are 12 stops along the way, at places including Peachtree Center, Woodruff Park and the Sweet Auburn Market. Streetcars only pick up and discharge passengers at designated stops.
Cost: Free for the first three months; $1 a ride thereafter. Free to children younger than 10 years old.
Hours: The streetcar will run 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays; 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays; 8:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays.
Getting on and off:
The streetcars offer “low-floor” access, so that wheelchairs and other assisted devices can roll directly on board.
Should you walk or ride?
Two streetcars will be operating at all times. The vehicles will make the one-way trip in about 9.9 minutes, and will arrive at stops about every 15 minutes. The average person can walk the one-way route in about 26 minutes, so if you miss one vehicle and the next car isn’t coming for 15 minutes, it might make sense to walk.
Sharing the road with streetcars:
During testing the streetcars were involved twice in collisions with motor vehicles. In both cases the drivers of the motor vehicles were cited. Cars can drive on roads that have streetcar tracks but streetcar personnel stress that trying to pass a streetcar is a mistake.
Bicyclists should try to cross the streetcar tracks at right angles to avoid having a wheel snared.
Streetcar etiquette:
The rules of behavior on the streetcar are the same as those on MARTA trains and buses. Smoking is prohibited, as are open containers of food or drink.
Just in time for the Peach Drop, the Atlanta Streetcar system will carry its first passengers today.
Mayor Kasim Reed, transportation and business leaders will be the first to ride the $98 million system when it opens its doors Tuesday morning, traveling on one of the city’s four streetcars near Edgewood Avenue to Woodruff Park.
City leaders will then host a grand opening celebration at 11 a.m. near Woodruff, kicking off the city’s newest transportation system that supporters hope will be a magnet for tourism and development in downtown Atlanta.
Though the city’s four streetcars have circulated the 2.7-mile track in recent months, Tuesday marks the first time the cars will carry riders. Atlantans haven’t had a streetcar since 1949, and city leaders hope the downtown loop will ultimately connect with a larger light rail system.
The streetcar, which is owned by the city and operated by MARTA, will be free to passengers for the first three months of service and $1 per ride thereafter. Children younger than 10 years old are allowed to ride for free.
The project broke ground in 2012 and was originally projected to open by May 2013. But due to several delays, including lingering safety concerns from the Federal Transit Administration this fall, the opening of the system was pushed back to end of 2014.
The streetcar is a joint project between city, MARTA and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District. The system is largely funded by a $47.6 million federal transportation grant, part of President Barack Obama’s push to revitalize rail transit nationwide.
Streetcar supporters hope the project will be a boon for development, carrying not only local workers and college students but tourists visiting downtown attractions. But critics say the streetcar system — with wait times up to 15 minutes, about the same amount of time it would take a pedestrian to walk a mile — may not do enough to serve the local population.
Tuesday’s opening marks a promise fulfilled by Reed, who pledged earlier this year that despite repeated delays, the streetcar would carry passengers by year’s end.
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