Atlanta’s New, Revised Streetcar Proposal
Decatur Metro | June 25, 2010 | 2:34 pm
To be fair, Maria Saporta broke this story first, way back on June 14th, but the AJC just reminded me that I still hadn’t mentioned it.
After being completely ignored by the Feds for saying “Yes, you can have the privilege of funding the entire cost of our Peachtree streetcar.”, Atlanta’s back at the Fed’s door asking for streetcar money. But this time when asking for stimulus money, the city has shelved the more aggressive Peachtree streetcar line and pledged actual cash to cover a portion of the project’s cost. From the AJC…
…the new plan, which calls for 2.6 miles of track from Centennial Olympic Park to the King Center, along historic Auburn Avenue. The project would be connected to MARTA and is estimated to draw more than 2,330 daily riders, including tourists and Georgia State University students.
The total price tag would be $72 million, with the city and Central Atlanta Progress’ Downtown Community Improvement District each providing $10 million, Borrero said.
My initial reaction was “Oh great, a tourist trolley.”, but then, prompted by CL’s Thomas Wheatley, I considered the struggling/transitional neighborhoods it would pass through and began to favor it over the Peachtree line. But really which is better, a streetcar that revitalizes a neighborhood or one that strengthens connections along the city’s densest corridor?
Rendering of Peachtree streetcar courtesy of Peachtree Corridor Partnership
This proposal reinforces the adage, You have to walk before you run. Indeed, you have to crawl before you walk. Atlanta needs some street cred (sorry) with funding sources on transportation. The $72 million is a first step — crawl — toward a larger vision of strengthening connections along the densest corridor, as you put it. We need it.
I’ll believe it when I see it. A boxcar named bureaucracy.
At this point, I’ll take what we can get. And it’s not hard to see how the success of a smaller rail deployment like this could help loosen the purse strings on a more ambitious Peachtree line down the road.
Well, I’ve never seen the point of the Peachtree streetcar. It’s would be OK, but as far as I can tell, MARTA already does a fine job of servicing that corridor, with lots of rail stations right next to Peachtree, Five Points up through Buckhead (N7).
Agreed. I too have never seen the point of having a streetcar along Peachtree. MARTA does a fine job of serving that area. It makes much more sense to have a service from Centennial Park to MLK center. I see benefit for that community. Or a streetcar running the length of Ponce.
Ooh, a Ponce streetcar would be nice. Or how about one running along Clairmont Ave., from the Courthouse up past Emory and to the VA? Hell, I could see running one all the way up Clairemont to the Chamblee MARTA station.
This was actually seriously considered several years ago but a lot of residents objected.
I’ve also fantasized about a Ponce streetcar, but I don’t know how difficult the logistics of it would be and how strong the resistance from residential property owners along Ponce would be.
That seems like a promising route and idea but…
27 million dollars a mile for laying track on an existing street/right of way? That’s breathtaking.
Indeed. But not borrowing massive amounts of money and spending it on projects like this will stifle the economic “recovery,” so please, keep quiet while we issue more T-bills to the Chinese.
I’m with you, Ridgelandistan. (And it’s actually $72 million.) For that amount of money, it seems we should be getting 20 times that amount of track. Can’t they use prisoners as free labor or something? Why can’t we get creative with these sorts of projects and funding?
$72million / 2.6miles =$27.69 million per mile
Monorail or Bust!
Providing an economic boost to the struggling/transitional neighborhoods on this Auburn route would be a great thing. I’ve always been embarrassed by the way we’ve allowed so much unsightly decay to exist for so long near the historically-important Sweet Auburn area.
And if the streetcar route promotes some new development to take the place of the many parking lots/decks in this area, that’s a big bonus.
Darin – I totally agree. I have walked this route from downtown to the Memorial, and see the need for a lot of basic non-commercial infrastructure along the way. THIS is a streetcar that would attract soooooooooo many Atlantans and Atlanta visitors! I don’t see any negatives in this proposal.
how about some of the delicious federal lucre to supplement the measly $5MM for the beltline?