One of the most egregious projects has been transit along Georgia 400. They often site the higher initial costs of building rail and the regulations needed to compete for federal dollars. Often, it’s the transportation agencies and elected leaders who have had a bias for buses for years. Somehow, all of those metro areas have been able to develop rail while we in Atlanta repeatedly hit obstacles. San Diego Minneapolis Boston and Charlotte, N.C. with projects in Maryland and Virginia San Francisco - MUNI and the BART route to San Jose Santa Ana, Calif. Major cities all over the country - cities that compete with metro Atlanta - are busy investing in rail.Īll the following cities have either just opened new rail service, are under construction or have a construction start date: Los Angeles, which has the largest rail program under construction Washington, D.C. Voters overwhelmingly approved the transit plan in November 2020 - largely because of support from Austin’s younger residents who wanted rail.īut Austin is not the only city investing in rail. The point really hit home during the LINK trip to Austin earlier this month when 120 leaders from metro Atlanta heard about Austin’s $7.1 billion initiative for transit projects, which is dominated by light rail. Currently, there are no rail projects that have been given a green light in metro Atlanta. (Special: MARTA.)īuses certainly can play a role in the regional plan, but rail transit needs to be included in a multi-modal transportation system. (Special: MARTA.) Here is the “More MARTA” (approved by Atlanta voters in 2016) that the MARTA board adopted in 2018. Here is the “More MARTA” (approved by Atlanta voters in 2016) that the MARTA board adopted in 2018.

There are even rumblings that the Atlanta BeltLine is at risk of becoming a busway rather than utilizing light rail or streetcars - although a form of rail has been part of the 22-mile corridor since the project’s inception.

Rail going up the I-85 corridor to Gwinnett.

Clayton County rail connecting to MARTA.Look at the following metro Atlanta transit projects that initially were envisioned to be rail and now appear to be destined to become bus routes: This means the decision to switch from rail to bus has far-reaching implications for how our region will grow for decades to come. Bus routes, on the other hand, do little to change the landscape because developers are less apt to invest around a bus stop rather than a rail stop or station. Because of its permanency, rail transforms the development of communities into thriving nodes. More importantly, it is well documented that rail lines (streetcars, light rail, heavy rail and commuter rail) change the way land is used. It’s a mode that may sound good - buses that act like rail - but in reality, most BRT projects in the United States are just express buses, often mixing in with traffic while generating harmful emissions. We are in a moment in time when we can transform our region with a world-class transit network thanks in large part to the $1.3 trillion federal infrastructure investment, but for a reason that makes little sense virtually every proposed transit line being proposed for metro Atlanta has switched from being heavy or light rail to “bus rapid transit,” or BRT.

Marta bus routes alpharetta to airport