When it comes to transit, the state of Georgia insists on perpetually studying in hopes of never having to take the actual test.
It’s hard to reach any other conclusion, given the now-predictable pattern. It plays out like this: a legislative session begins with hope that this may be the year the state gets serious about modes of transport in addition to roads and bridges.
Optimism quickly devolves into stalemates gathered around predictable partisan and geographic borders. Or simple indifference, if not barely veiled hostility, drags progress to a halt.
The end result is, alternately, nothing at all; an effort to push the tough work back onto local governments; or a modest victory praised loudly as a grand success.
Meanwhile, the average Georgian continues to burn away $1,130 each year via the hidden, yet real, tax called congestion. And products of commerce likewise do fuel-wasting stop-and-go’s on too many roads.
This year was no different. A bold — for Georgia — plan to push MARTA expansion in Fulton and DeKalb counties was driven into a legislative ditch. What emerged was an even-more-modest compromise to fund light rail in the city of Atlanta while keeping at bay awhile longer a proposed – and controversial — MARTA expansion up overworked Georgia 400.
And lawmakers dug into their dog-eared playbook to appoint not one, but two, mirror-image legislative committees to study transit governance. If this tactic sounds familiar, that’s because it is. The Joint Transit Governance Study Commission issued its final report – all four pages – in late 2011.
Through the decades, multiple other entities, from GDOT, the Atlanta Regional Commission, the Metro Atlanta Chamber and even the Civic League for Regional Atlanta have studied this issue. Enough reports and draft legislation have been generated to stuff a lengthy shelf at the Georgia Archives.
How much more analysis and thumb-twiddling is needed before the actual question of the state’s involvement is decisively called and debated? Hopefully that will happen before Atlanta, and Georgia’s, economic future is spirited away by more-innovative competitors.
Georgia deserves better than the routine stalling that amounts to a decision in itself. Which is a ridiculous status quo because the paperwork so far all points decisively toward the state having a substantial role to play in transit.
If nothing else, Georgia should actively push toward creating effective transit governance for metro Atlanta that lets us maximize what we now have and build toward tomorrow.
This is not a new idea. The plans and draft legislation have long been drawn. They need only due consideration, followed by action.
To the extent possible, the region’s transit operators have long cooperated with each other. A common website, ATLtransit.org, now helps riders plan multi-system trips. The various systems are working on shared bus stop signage that should debut next year. The Breeze farecard can now be used on MARTA and the other operators.
And under CEO Keith T. Parker, MARTA — once a favorite object of Gold Dome disdain — has done an impressive fiscal about-face, the speed of which seemed to stun some lawmakers used to gaining political points at the agency’s expense.
All of which means the usual excuses against state involvement sound more-strained than ever. Especially when considering the state’s oft-professed role in backing economic development. Who can argue that metro congestion does not adversely affect all of Georgia’s economy?
We were reminded of all this by Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle’s comments during a recent interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Kyle Wingfield. Cagle, who’s long said some of the right things about transit, nevertheless complained that MARTA hadn’t somehow exploited opportunities to create long-haul commuter trains to transport workers in Wi-Fi-equipped comfort. Such operations are commonplace in many cities, from Nashville to San Francisco.
Funny he should mention that. Unlike states that would have to start at the costly square 1 of paying dearly to add passenger trains to freight carrier-owned tracks, Georgia has a distinct advantage. The state owns a high-quality, Class 1 rail line between Atlanta and Chattanooga. A long-term lease to CSX Transportation expires at the end of 2019.
Landlords have strong rights governing use of their property. State Rep. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, seemed to agree when he introduced legislation to establish commuter trains along a corridor linking Atlanta, Vinings, Smyrna, Marietta, Kennesaw and Acworth. Setzler insisted such a 30-mile service could be established for “considerably less” than $100 million. By comparison, the 2.7-mile Atlanta Streetcar loop cost $98 million and new fuel taxes are funding a 10-year, GDOT road-and-bridge blitz expected to total about $10 billion.
If Lt. Gov. Cagle is serious about “a true commuter option” as he put it, here’s Georgia’s chance. At minimum, the idea merits real, unbiased consideration.
Just reading previous reports over the summer – and updating them as necessary – would be a strong start and may well be enough, given how much past research is now gathering dust mites.
As other cities and states build toward the future’s needs, Georgia cannot afford to study itself into failure by default. Lawmakers should begin the 2017 session prepared to act as decisively on transit as they did on roads in 2015.
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