For over a decade there has been an attempt to extend the Silver Comet Trail to the Atlanta Beltline. Roberta Cook, founder and president of the River Line Historic Area in Cobb County began talking up the idea in the early 2000s.
Cook and others formed a separate organization called Connect the Comet. The effort grew in size and effectiveness.
The Cobb County DOT's 2009 transportation plan included several alternative routes to get the trail eastward across the Chattahoochee River in the event that CSX, which owned the remaining tracks of the old Silver Comet passenger service, would not give up the right-of-way for the extension.
Recently two things happened that sped the process.
Cobb County's Greenways and Trails Master Plan identified the extension of the Silver Comet Trail to the Chattahoochee as a priority project.
And the State of Georgia's lease with CSX came up for renegotiation. CSX owned a two-mile section of track from the existing trail head to Plant Atkinson Road that was unused. Connect the Comet advocates lobbied state legislators to make that track a priority in the negotiations.
Finally, the negotiations to get that 2.3 section of track from Mavell Road to Plant Atkinson were successful.
So what's next? Haisten Willis recently wrote an update article in the Cobb County Courier quoting a number of people involved in the effort. PATH Foundation founder Ed McBrayer, whose organization will be involved in the project, hopes that the construction will begin sometime in the second half of 2019, with a target completion date in 2021.
But first, a lot of planning and engineering has to be done. In the Haisten Willis article, Cobb County DOT Planning Division Manager Eric Meyer was quoted saying, “The next part is the nitty-gritty. We have to do a survey, design and engineer the project and set plans, which will consume probably the next six to nine months. CSX has not removed tracks from the corridor just yet, there’s a federal process to take that step.”