Opinion: A rider’s view of next-gen transit project

MARTA’s Board is expected to vote Thursday on bringing bus rapid transit to a route in southwest Atlanta. This after long debate whether to bring improved bus service or light rail to the corridor. A resident of the neighborhood who’s long advocated for better transit along Campbellton Road offers her views here. Get more information on the project at www.itsmarta.com. Hard-copy info packets are also available at the Adams Park Library on Campbellton Road for those without email or internet. Also, read on AJC.com personal viewpoints on transit in general by metro Atlantans who answered an earlier Atlanta Journal-Constitution query.

Recently, I was asked “if Campbellton has explored LRT?” This person lives in the SWAT (Southwest Atlanta) but has not followed this project.

Being one of a tiny number of Campbellton Corridor residents who has regularly used transit in Atlanta and other cities where I’ve lived, I answered: That’s part of the chaos. Campbellton has always been open to light rail transit (LRT).

Sherry B. Williams

However, based on the comparison of LRT versus BRT (bus rapid transit), the facts are:

• LRT will displace more people because it requires more land, including property for a maintenance facility for the rail cars. This is worse than displacement from gentrification. To knowingly allow a long-underserved neighborhood to be further decimated in the middle of an unprecedented housing shortage would be cold-hearted and unethical.
• Most LRT supporters surveyed rarely or never use transit, have a car, their home is not at risk, and do not seem to care that others will be displaced. They pack community meetings.
• In contrast, most BRT supporters surveyed are transit-dependent (do not have a car). This is why the No. 83 Campbellton Road-Greenbriar bus route has the second-highest ridership across the MARTA system. Pre-COVID-19, it had 5,500-plus boardings a day. The projected estimate is 9,000 upon project completion. These supporters rarely attend community meetings.
• Funding for BRT is less complicated and more likely to happen. Due to all the chaos, and more competitive funding criteria, the LRT project may not get funded. The Federal Transit Administration historically does not fund controversial projects that lack cohesive community and stakeholder support.
• If LRT were chosen and funded, it will take 8 to 10 years to build and cost about $340 million. BRT takes 5 to 7 years, uses all-electric buses that are environmentally friendly and costs about $130 million.

The extra $200 million, according to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, will stay on Campbellton and could be used for station amenities, more sidewalks, lighting, landscaping, ADA compliance, safety upgrades, bike lanes and more to help with route permanence. Most importantly, these extra amenities could help remedy more than four decades of disinvestment and disenfranchisement as the corridor was allowed to deteriorate.

Transit-dependent riders need relief as soon as it can be available. To wait longer is not logical because decreasing travel time is a quality-of-life issue.

Having the second-highest ridership in the system does not measure up to the ridership of other projects across the country competing for the same funds that have more boardings and longer routes. The Campbellton corridor is only six miles long.

Due to high turnover, a tiny group of community members know more about the More MARTA effort than most MARTA staff, board members and contractors. The community is the only constant here. We have fought this long to keep our homes despite surmounting odds. We have to get this right.

This project is further complicated because it encompasses four NPUs (Neighborhood Planning Units) and is adjacent to two others. All six NPUs have weighed in and want to move forward.

Initially, I advocated for light rail because the corridor deserves the most efficient mode that addresses the needs of this unique, underserved urban corridor. After taking a deeper dive, I found other cities are building LRT through dense commercial areas and are mostly flat, with wider streets that mostly connect destination locations (hotels, hospitals, universities, etc.). They often have fewer infrastructure and right-of-way challenges and less resident displacement issues. The devil is in the details.

This latest information reveals more neighbors are at risk of being displaced or getting nothing. If Campbellton loses the number-one position as the first More MARTA project to get its shovel in the ground, other projects would get in front of Campbellton. No one should be okay with that. Residents who have closely studied this project agree.

For switching from supporting LRT to simply explaining both modes, I have been called a “traitor” and “sellout.” Standing up for this time-sensitive equity project is well worth the scrutiny.

Federal funding requirements and deadlines will not change. The Campbellton-Greenbriar area is finally positioned to get a long-overdue economic development catalyst. We must move forward based on community priorities and keep our eye on the prize.

MARTA has made some missteps and outright blunders along the way. And residents were organized to get them in line. This resulted in MARTA’s 2021 survey where they rode the buses and trains and knocked on doors of apartments along the Campbellton-Greenbriar corridor. It favored BRT by 2 percentage points -- BRT 45% and LRT 43%. Some experts believe that if all residents and riders better understood the differences in the modes and their impact, BRT may have scored higher in the survey.

Regular and transit-dependent riders want and need more efficient, reliable, safe, clean, permanent and frequent service that decreases their commute time while minimizing displacement of residents.