MARTA board members voted Monday to proceed with plans totaling $3.5 billion to expand rail mostly in DeKalb County, but if voters don't approve a regional sales tax in July the trains may never leave the station.
The board green-lighted a plan to seek $1.6 billion in federal funds to build the Clifton Corridor light rail from the Lindbergh Center station in north Atlanta to the Avondale station east of Decatur and also create an all-day express bus service from south DeKalb to job centers in the metro area.
In a surprise move, the board also approved seeking federal money for a heavy-rail extension from the Indian Creek station to the Mall at Stonecrest, a move largely seen as an attempt to mollify angry south DeKalb residents. Those residents and their politicians have threatened to try to derail the regional transportation sales tax referendum because its project list doesn't include rail for them.
"If the tax referendum does not include rail along I-20, it is going to be hard for me to vote for it," said DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson, who represents the area. "They've been waiting for rail for 20 or 30 years."
It could easily be at least two more decades before any rail makes its way to Stonecrest. Because federal grants for rail projects normally require a 50 percent match, MARTA would have to come up with more than an estimated $800 million to match any federal money to build the extension.
The board combined the heavy-rail extension with the $225 million express bus project for the purpose of seeking federal funds, bringing the price tag to $1.9 billion. If passed in July, the regional sales tax would pay for the express bus service and some bus stations on I-20 to the Mall at Stonecrest, but it does not include any direct funding for rail in that corridor.
The bus stations could be converted to rail stations if MARTA is later able to secure enough local and federal money to establish train service, MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott said.
The board's action Monday would allow MARTA officials to start doing environmental and engineering studies -- which could take several years -- to enable them to make bids for federal grants to build the rail projects.
Ashton Carter, treasurer for the Wesley Chapel Community Overlay Commission, said tying the rail projects and bus projects in the same proposal could generate more support for the sales tax because its passage would help MARTA make a better case for federal grants.
"It looks a lot more promising than it did two weeks ago," said Carter, a Bank of America vice president for small business banking in metro Atlanta.
That still might not be enough for many south DeKalb voters, whose support is considered critical for passing the sales tax.
Scott said it was critical for the regional sales tax to pass for the Clifton Corridor project to proceed because the referendum's project list includes $700 million to build the first leg of the light rail from Lindbergh Center to the area around Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a major job center. Although it would be short of the 50 percent match, it would make MARTA competitive for a federal grant to build almost all of the second leg of the project to the Avondale station, Scott said.
Scott said she was confident that the proposed tax would pass and allow Atlanta to be as competitive for transit funds as Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Portland, Ore., and other metro areas expanding light-rail systems.
"I base it on attitude and ego," she said. "This region does not want to be an also-ran. We are the Atlanta region, and we are not going to be outgunned by these Texans, these people from Seattle or these people from Charlotte."
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