State officials this week gave Atlanta extra time to submit the rest of its plans for addressing problems with the city’s troubled streetcar. But they also renewed their threat to shut it down if those plans don’t pass muster.
In a letter dated Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Transportation set a June 28 deadline for the City of Atlanta and MARTA to comply with the state’s request for plans to address 60 problems uncovered in recent audits. Previously, GDOT had given the city and MARTA until this past Tuesday to come up with ways to address problems ranging from poor maintenance procedures and inadequate staffing to a failure to properly investigate accidents.
City officials submitted plans to fix 41 of the problems and asked for another month — two weeks more than the state decided to allow — to address the others. It also asked GDOT to withdraw its threat to shut down the streetcar.
On Wednesday, GDOT said it “may order the Atlanta streetcar to immediately cease operations” if the safety concerns are not adequately addressed.
Meanwhile, GDOT is reviewing the more than 2,500 pages of records the city has already submitted – a process expected to take at least 10 days.
Atlanta and MARTA share responsibility for the $98 million downtown streetcar, which opened in December 2014. But state and federal law requires GDOT to oversee its safety and security.
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