A new group of high-profile business and community leaders is joining growing opposition to building rail on the Atlanta BeltLine, even though transit has been part of the corridor’s vision for more than 20 years.
Better Atlanta Transit (BAT) has announced it wants to “kick off a public debate on the wisdom of building rail on the BeltLine while preserving the popular path and identifying transportation alternatives that fit the 21st century.”
“Rail is the 20th century,” said Renee Glover, former president and CEO of Atlanta Housing, in a BAT news release. “We need to look forward, not backward.”
BAT’s calls for more public debate comes as MARTA is set to break ground on the estimated $230 million Downtown streetcar extension to the BeltLine’s Eastside Trail in 2025. The roughly two-mile extension would be the first stretch of transit completed along the BeltLine’s 22-mile loop around the city’s urban core.
Residents living around the BeltLine and businesses have voiced their opposition to the streetcar extension and formed their own grassroots campaigns to try to stop it. Their complaints include not enough public input on the project.
But the streetcar extension remains a priority for Atlanta BeltLine Inc., MARTA, as well as Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council. It will be funded with More MARTA funds that come from a half-penny sales tax approved by voters in 2016 specifically to build new rail, streetcar extensions, new bus lines, and new stations.
The BeltLine also just launched a transit planning study for a 13.6-mile portion of the rail corridor. The federally funded study will identify the preferred BeltLine transit alignment and station locations in the Northwest quadrant.
Metro Atlanta is expected to add nearly three million people over the next three decades, according to Atlanta Regional Commission predictions. Roughly 1.2 million are expected to live inside the city of Atlanta. More than 500,000 now live in the city.
Building transit on the BeltLine is critical to addressing future growth by alleviating car dependency. Transit that connects neighborhoods on the BeltLine will provide equity and opportunity to all residents who want to get to jobs, grocery stores, healthcare and parks, BeltLine officials have said.
Billy Linville, spokesperson for BAT, told Rough Draft that while many people have supported rail on the BeltLine in the past, the city cannot get stuck in a position taken more than 20 years ago.
Technological advances over the years now offer new transportation alternatives, such as micro-mobility. These include e-scooters, bicycles and autonomous vehicles.
“The decision to put rail on the BeltLine will take decades to build and cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It is a decision that will impact generations of Atlantans,” he said.
“We just question the wisdom of putting rail on the BeltLine when new technologies may be a better option for our residents, our tax dollars, and our small businesses.”
“That is why it is essential that a thorough public debate take place so that we can address all of our transpiration needs across the city and identify transit alternatives that fit the 21st century, while preserving the BeltLine as we know it,” he said.
