The Inner Core study, BRT, and Rail

I attended the public meeting on MARTA's Inner Core study on the Beltline alternative at the East Lake YMCA Tuesday evening.  MARTA and MARTA's consulting team presented the four route alternatives and three mode alternatives, much as I'd described previously in my posting MARTA's Inner Core Study (click here to visit that article.

One interesting development which became obvious in the meetings is that the community strongly favors light rail or street car over Bus Rapid Transit, and suspects that MARTA and the consultants tilted the weighting factors to ensure that the outcome of the study favored BRT.  MARTA vigorously denied this at the meeting.  But one thing is certain.  I don't remember hearing a single community voice raised in favor of the BRT option, and there were many comments made in favor of the rail options.

Another issue which was raised by Jay Varner, chair of the Transportation Committee of Reynoldstown's neighborhood association was the bypassing of Reynoldstown in an attempt to avoid the Hulsey rail yards.  CSX has these yards on the market, and MARTA presented no plan for the contingency of the yards being sold and redeveloped.  One thing which didn't escape notice is that the dogleg necessary to avoid the train yards precludes light rail from two of the four route options given a right angle turn at Moreland Avenue.

The Beltline discussions are unfolding rapidly.  I'd urge residents of the neighborhoods in Atlanta to get actively involved in this process.  There is no hardened plan with respect to either routes or modes, and we're going to be living with the decisions made at this stage for a very long time.

Comments

[brad m]

Interested in Reynoldstown's views on the 2 alternate routes - considering one route would place the line straight up a busy & crowded street, Wylie. Otherwise, even the route that doesn't go through Reynoldstown would still be nearby, at Memorial Dr.

Obviously, I would have preffered the route that would go along Memorial Dr, unfortunately I will never be able to benefit from it (except of course for the sale of my house).

[Jeff Wood]

Larry,

The cost estimates for the streetcar option are way out of line. Is there a large cadre of rail activists that I could get a hold of to set these cost things straight? The Streetcar should be 5 million a mile cheaper than the BRT so these numbers are crazy. My friend Lyndon and I are thinking that someone at MARTA is fudging the numbers. He runs www.lightrailnow.org

Any local contacts would be helpful.

Jeff

[Joe]

Jeff, check out the National Corridors Initiative (http://www.nationalcorridors.org/). They have a weekly newsletter that caters to rail interests and may be able to put you in contact with someone who could verify the numbers.

[Larry Felton Johnson]

Hi, Brad. I hope you still look at the blog from time to time after you move! I haven't heard from the Reynoldstown folks about the existing alternatives beyond what I already mentioned, but my impression is that they want the transit to go through their neighborhood rather than to skirt it. I got an email to the effect that they're working on a plan.

[Larry Felton Johnson]

Jeff,

I'll see what I can do. Send me an off-blog email.

[Thomas Dutton]

BRT and AJC want us to believe them when they say bus rapid transit is just like light rail. For us to swallow that, we have to believe that their lie is just like the truth!

[Chris]

I'm in Charlotte NC keeping track of Atlanta goings-on. Great blog. We're hearing lots about BRT being the way to go for our southeast line. For a peak visit http://www.ridetransit.org.