The city of Atlanta launched work on a new, 12-stop downtown streetcar line Wednesday — and officials disclosed that the project’s estimated price tag has risen by more than $12 million. Much of that increase is paid for by outside grants.
The city now estimates the total cost at $84.7 million, plus $9 million to move water and sewer pipes along the route. The total cost, which the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates at $94 million, is up from $72 million at the time of the federal grant award last year. The earlier figure excluded the sewer work, which the city says would have been done under any streetcar scenario.
Local and federal leaders at a kickoff event said the money will be well-spent, despite critics’ doubts that ridership will justify the costs.
“This is about jobs,” said Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation. “This is about creating an economic corridor. ... This will be a magnet for tourism.”
Critics, however, say the project will not draw enough traffic to justify its cost.
About $9 million of the added cost comes from a decision to use newer and more expensive streetcars that could last 20 years longer than the refurbished models initially envisioned, said Duriya Farooqui, Atlanta’s chief operating officer.
The newer cars ride lower and comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act, while the older ones would have required ramps that could have interfered with local businesses, she said.
The City Council approved the added expense last year, and the money already has been allocated in the budget, according to Mayor Kasim Reed’s office.
The $9 million to move water and sewer pipes is to be paid for by the city’s watershed department. About $5 million funded by a Livable Communities Initiative grant will go toward additional bike path and sidewalk improvements, with about $1.25 million more toward turning Luckie Street into a two-way street.
The city will get a better finished product for its money, said Beverly Scott, chief executive officer of MARTA, which will operate the line.
“This is not a ballooning of price,” she said.
The federal government is contributing $47.6 million through what is known as a TIGER II grant. The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District plans to contribute roughly $6 million for construction, as well as an additional $12.3 million for operating expenses over the next 20 years. “It really is a game-changer,” said A.J. Robinson, president of Central Atlanta Progress, which manages the improvement district.
The city has allocated about $24.7 million, not counting the additional $9 million in watershed work.
The line will run from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center, with stops providing access to the World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center, the Georgia Aquarium, the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site and the Auburn Avenue corridor. The line is slated to eventually connect to the Atlanta Beltline, a massive project with light rail and streetcar components on the drawing board.
The goal is to create the “most modern transportation system of any city in the South,” Reed said. Even with ripped-up streets in the next several years, the benefits “far outweigh the inconveniences.”
The downtown streetcar is not included in the 1 percent transportation sales tax referendum set for July, although nearby Beltline components are included in the list of projects voters will consider.
The streetcar will connect directly to the Peachtree Center MARTA station and will also have stops within walking distance of the Five Points and King Memorial stations.
A 1.3 mile one-way trip is scheduled to take about 10 minutes, for an average of 7.8 miles per hour. Fares will be the same as MARTA’s with free transfers between systems.
Critics say the streetcar line, scheduled for completion in 2013, will not move people as efficiently as buses, and will not entice enough people to leave their cars to justify the cost.
“I don’t believe it’s going to improve mass transit,” said Benita Dodd, vice president at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation and a consistent critic of the project. “If anything, it’s diverting needed funds from transit that is needed. It’s more a tourist attraction than a transit solution.”
Randal O’Toole, a senior fellow with the Washington-based, libertarian-leaning Cato Institute and a critic of streetcar projects, said cities routinely overestimate the economic development impact. He said “all kinds of cities are building streetcars because the [federal] money is there and if you don’t do it, someone else will.”
Local and federal leaders on Wednesday called the streetcar an economic engine. Atlanta City Councilman Kwanza Hall said it will undo some of the damage done when the interstate cut off the Sweet Auburn district from downtown.
Reed said Atlanta is following the example of cities including Seattle, Charlotte and Houston, where he said hundreds of millions of dollars in investment followed streetcar projects.
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