Atlanta Streetcar Stimu-LOSS
Decatur Metro | February 17, 2010 | 11:32 am“Build us a streetcar line!” Atlanta screamed north towards the Chesapeake Bay. “What? I’m sorry, what was that?” seems to have been the response.
The AJC reports that Atlanta’s bid to get the Federal Government to build us a streetcar line down ol’ Peachtree Street with stimulus funding was totally ignored.
I like it when a reporter’s disappointment bleeds through onto the page…
In fact, in a two-page list of grant recipients including many in the Southeast, Georgia appears not to have a single project.
Atlanta, local business groups and MARTA applied for $298.3 million, the total amount needed to construct the streetcar. The city and the business groups would have shared the cost of operations, helped by ticket fares, advertising revenues, and naming rights. MARTA would have administered the grant. The city also suggested smaller versions of the project that would cost less, but no dice. Streetcars operated in Atlanta until 1949.
The loss for the streetcar is one more drop in the bucket of metro Atlanta’s mass transit misery.
But what did we do to deserve such overlooking?! What MORE could we have done!?
A transportation official in Atlanta noted that one of the likely winners that leaked out early, Tucson, Ariz., was paying more local money for its project’s capital costs than Atlanta. Where Atlanta’s application would put no local money toward the streetcar’s construction, Tucson planned to pay a large portion of the building costs of its streetcar project itself, from a half-cent regional transportation tax.
Oh geez, you wanted us to actually help pay for it!? What silliness.
Unless it has yellow, parallel lines and smells like a tar pit in the summer time, we want nothing to do with it.
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A few weeks ago there was an event in Centennial Park for the streetcar. A streetcar was supposed to be there for people to see, but they weren’t able to get it there for some reason.
The failure to clear such a basic logistical hurdle killed and buried (probably forever) any confidence I had that the streetcar would become a reality.
The event was canceled because it was raining and nasty outside. I went through the park…there was actual track on the ground and International Blvd. was blocked off…but I don’t think the weather let them set up Charlotte’s street cars for us to see.
The event definitely did take place. I know this because I attended during my lunch break. (Anyone want a few “I’m on Board with the Atlanta Streetcar” stickers? I grabbed a handful.) It was not raining, although it had rained the day before and the ground in the park was still soggy.
The rep from Siemens (the company that manufactures the streetcars) told me that the streetcar was on a truck and was supposed to be there by “three or so.” Unfortunate timing for an event that was likely to attract interest mostly from people on their lunch hour.
It was there. It was a day or two late but I went over to the park and saw it. Makes today’s news that much worse…
“Build us a streetcar line!” Atlanta screamed north towards the Chesapeake Bay. “What? I’m sorry, what was that?” seems to have been the response.
Brilliant.
The streetcar was about 5 years late arriving at Centennial Park.
They’re tearing up Peachtree again, again…
Sorry but this proposal never made much sense to me.
It’s not just for the joy of having an old streetcar.
Peachtree Street is Atlanta’s downtown. Having a streetcar that provided convenient transportation to those living along the strip, increases the desirability of the area and turns a street with pockets of activity into one long, interconnected place. In theory, a streetcar would encourage greater density and provide a stable transportation option for those in the area (which developers and businesses LOVE).
That’s just one reason.
Seems to me the MARTA subway already covers this track.
All Peachtree needs is to have no parking enforced 24/7/365 in all lanes.
I beg to differ. As a midtown resident, and one who rides MARTA (the rail and the #110 bus – that travels on Peachtree from Five Points to Lenox), I can tell you that keeping parking off Peachtree wouldn’t solve anything. To back that up, I don’t own a car, and I walk and bike on Peachtree too.
Any parking-related problems happen from impromptu valet operations at businesses and events by the Fox. However, these are infrequent and restricted to specific times – it might screw up on-time performance for the #110 every once in a while, but it doesn’t cripple the corridor. The fault there is our overall failure to design things well, and to support smart transportation policies and options.
“No parking enforced 24/7/365 in all lanes” is a solution in search of a problem. Most of Peachtree is like this already.
Just my two cents.
The state of Georgia provides paultry (if any?) funding for public transit in Atlanta. County, city and commercial funding is all well and good, but, I believe, the federal government is expecting state funding as well.
Recently there has been whiffs in the air that the attitude about public transit may be changing under the Gold Dome, but there certainly has been no money to back up the rhetoric.
I wonder if the proposal was doomed by the provision that MARTA was to have administered the grant? Personally I wouldn’t have had too much faith that a single dollar of that money would have ever made it to the Streetcar project.
The question of what ‘more could have been done’ is a joke, right? Georgia is a state run by and for GDOT. And their only agenda is roads, roads and more roads. Our state gas tax is ridiculously (embarrassingly?) meager and goes to building roads. We are being outpaced by every other major southern city. Atlanta is going to be left in the dust because of our steadfast refusal to embrace anything other than our automobiles.
Look, even, at Decatur. People feel they own the street in front of their house to park their almighty cars — heaven forbid the idea that streets are public.
We are married to our cars and take seriously the vow to let no man put asunder what GDOT has joined.
Very sad –
Street parking tends to slow traffic down and decreases the tendency to establish garage doors as the overiding design element of a neighborhood.
More excellent points as the why streets should be treated as public — as in public transportation!
’twas indeed dripping with sarcasm Trixie.
PEDS advocates street parking as a way to reduce neighborhood speeds. I am really glad for all the street-parkers on Sycamore Dr. that force people to slow down through our neighborhood.
Actually, USDOT LOVES MARTA. Don’t believe all the hype from the Gold Dome, JoeBlow. MARTA is a well-run organization, considering it’s lack of funding. (No- I don’t work for MARTA, but I do work in the transportation business.)
LaHood released a blog about the funding priorities for TIGER:
1. Long-term outcomes
a. Helping achieve a state of good repair
b. Stimulating economic competitiveness
c. Improving safety
d. Enhancing livability
e. Developing sustainability
2. Job creation and economic stimulus
3. Innovation
4. Partnerships
I wholly disagree. There is a lot of negative momentum re: transit in Atlanta and MARTA is getting dragged down with it. I’ve seen no recent evidence that USDOT or FTA have any “love” for MARTA or any other transit agencies in ATL. The only discretionary money the feds have given MARTA through from the stimulus was a small grant for solar panels at one of their bus garages.
IMHO, ATL will not see any major federal funding for transit until we show that we’ve got our act together. The impending death of C-Tran and major cuts at MARTA do not send a positive signal to the feds. Even small, locally-financed projects like the Memorial Drive BRT which could show that we’re at least doing something seem to be bogged down.
As scary as it is, the best chance we’ve got for new transit projects is Sonny’s regional SPLOST legislation working its way through the Gold Dome. Perhaps the Peachtree Streetcar, or a streetcar along Ponce/North Ave, will make the SPLOST project list.
I am relieved that the Peachtree Streetcar did not receive TIGER funds. I hope the message received is that we need comprehensive plans backed by the public with pronounced support from neutral parties. I assessed this plan to be shallow, of questionable public benefit, and the dear child of moneyed, for-profit interests. Think twice before you put forward the slimmed down, no local funding option included in the TIGER application as defying my assessment. I believe Atlanta should spend responsibly, regardless of funding source.
I thought I was solidly in favor of a new tax to fund transportation, be it state or regional, if it focused on transit. The suggestion that the Peachtree Streetcar, as proposed, might be funded by such a regional tax gives me pause.