Major transportation story lines abound this year: the T-SPLOST, the Port of Savannah deepening, a international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the Northwest Corridor and the I-85 HOT lanes, to name the big ones.
But the narrative does not stop there. If public-private financing falls into place, a $1 billion MultiModal Passenger Terminal, MMPT, could be constructed downtown, beginning in late 2014 — a Grand Central Station for commuter rail, passenger rail, transit, buses and taxis.
That’s a lot on Georgia’s plate at one time, so I met with Department of Transportation officials recently to get a better feel for the MMPT; GDOT recently hired master developers to produce a plan for building, and paying for, the terminal project.
Specifically, why plan now (public information meetings are ongoing) amid all this other crucial activity, and without much demand? You may have noticed that no passenger trains currently run through the area, with the exception of MARTA. Lots of freight, not many people.
They began, in part, by explaining that this is not your father’s DOT. Dana Lemon, a state transportation board member, said the DOT is “putting a different twist” on transportation nowadays.
“There’s not one project that’s necessarily more significant than the others,” Lemon said. “These types of projects are traditionally not done in Georgia. We’re offering different solutions that we feel will move the needle a bit further towards a comprehensive system.”
DOT Commissioner Keith Golden referenced the department’s historical and constitutional connection to road building. “As the Department of Transportation, we’re typically called the highway department, so this is a big shift for us,” Golden said, referring to the transit projects.
“But it is an emphasis area. We’ve been hamstrung a lot by our constitution that says ‘roads and bridges,’ but it doesn’t mean that we’re not for transit options and mobility options in general.”
Golden attributed the shift to growth patterns in metro Atlanta. “You’re starting to see the infill here in condominiums and things like that. The desire to move back in [to the city] is a change in the culture of metro Atlanta. You might start to see that there’s enough support — I would call it demand — for [transit]. If you can tie commuter rail to some of these other options, you’re going to be aligning with the way Georgia and the city of Atlanta is moving.”
The MMPT has long been on the GDOT to-do list, but now “the opportunity and the concept for public-private partnerships is growing,” Golden said. “There’s a groundswell around the country. You’re starting to see that people understand the opportunity. The rating agencies are ... starting to see that maybe there is some leverage here.”
Passage of the T-SPLOST on July 31 would add to the momentum. (The MMPT is not on the T-SPLOST project list, although a commuter rail line from Atlanta to Griffin would get $20 million for study and presumably would feed into such a hub.)
Golden said he’s hearing encouraging things from officials in other areas of the state also having referendums on the 1-cent sales tax on July 31. “I’ve got people telling me it’s a lock in their region. But metro Atlanta is still a toss-up.”
Ultimately, the GDOT likes the momentum for transit, including the MMPT: public meetings for residents living around the proposed terminal have generated virtually no negative feedback.
“There are no bads to this project,” Lemon explained. “There are only benefits. And the benefits far exceed transit. They far exceed simply putting a bus station or a train station in the middle of Atlanta. This is a significant project for Georgia, not just significant for this region. It will breathe life back into the state.”
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