It’s no secret that the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), what is supposed to be a robust and well-developed mass transit system for the Atlanta metropolitan area, is incredibly lacking. It does one thing pretty well in that it gets people from the airport to Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead and back. And that’s about it.
Want to fly in from New York and get to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) during rush hour in a reasonable amount of time? Good luck. And good luck to you for a while. MARTA’s ambitious plans around Emory to reduce congestion along the Clifton Corridor are lackluster at best and will most likely never happen. Why? It comes down to three things: politics, something called “right of way” and safety concerns. I’ll explain throughout this piece.
Before I move on, understand that even with those obstacles in mind, any capital infrastructure project, no matter how large or small, typically becomes a delay-prone mess. Public works projects almost always exceed any initial financial or timing estimates. There are always more complications than what meet the eye.
As many Emory folk know, MARTA’s access around Emory consists of a few bus stops that take you either to Lindbergh or Inman Park stations. Sure, it is easy to access MARTA rail from the 6 route if you want to spend double or triple the time it would take by car. And by the time MARTA gets you from your origin to your destination, you might as well have hopped in an Uber. And during rush hour? Forget about it. Another Uber car on the road just means more traffic and congestion. In the long term, it sets Emory up for disaster as travel times to Emory and the CDC will just get worse and worse with more cars being added to the road.
MARTA’s solution for that is a light rail system, something similar to the new streetcar launched last year in the Downtown area (streetcar.atlantaga.gov). The current Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the publicly available document created by MARTA demonstrating the need for the project, calls for linking two MARTA lines. That link would be between the Avondale Station on the Blue line with Lindbergh Center station on the Yellow and Red lines while cutting through North Decatur and Emory’s campus. It’s like a trolley system with its own dedicated pathway that would run parallel or “at grade” with the road. Think of it as a hybrid between a train and a bus. If you have been to Prague, Edinburgh or Jersey City, you are probably quite familiar with how it might look.
While that all sounds good, the cost does not. According to the Locally Preferred Alternative plan published in 2011, it would cost $1.7 billion to build this new system. And that estimate is quite a few years out of date. For example, the recently completed World Trade Center Transportation Hub in New York ran $2 billion over budget. The Second Avenue Subway extension in Manhattan took almost 100 years to complete and ran out of funding on multiple occasions due to improper budget estimates. This project probably will be no exception. Most capital construction projects run far over their estimates, so when all is said and done, it will probably cost somewhere north of $2 billion. Yikes!
Funding for this light rail system project right now is pretty bleak as well. The latest proposal tossed around is a marginal increase in the penny sales tax, the tax used to fund MARTA, by half a penny. That is, if voters approve it in a referendum vote. The idea came out of a bill, SB 369, that was recently passed by both the Georgia House of Representatives and State Senate. It is currently awaiting Governor Nathan Deal’s signature. The problem with the legislation though, is that the referendum vote only applies to Fulton County, not DeKalb. People are hoping that a DeKalb-inclusive bill will be introduced during the next legislative session. Thus, at the end of the day, there is still no funding plan in place, and the can keeps getting kicked down the road.
Hypothetically, even if the funding were secured, the EIS calls for a good portion of the proposed system to run next to the “right of way” or path that CSX, the railroad which operates adjacent to Emory’s campus, uses. Any Emory freshman living in Raoul or Longstreet-Means Hall could tell you by their vibrating walls at three in the morning that those tracks are heavily utilized. CSX is also one of the two largest railroads that operates on the East Coast of the U.S. With that in mind, odds are they probably do not want to give up any autonomy over their trackage, especially since that track leads to one of their main interchange yards in westside Atlanta. It would be a long and drawn out battle to secure the land parallel to those train tracks for a continuous operation envisioned by MARTA.
In addition, this proposal might conflict with Federal Railroad Administration regulations which prevent passenger and cargo trains from running along the same track due to safety regulations. God forbid in the event of a collision of a cargo train, a thorough assessment would need to be conducted to make certain that there is sufficient physical separation between cargo and passenger trains. That will only add further delays.
The general story here goes that politics are getting in the way of successfully funding this project, CSX holds a lot of power over the proposed land to be used and there might be potential safety concerns that will need to be addressed. All of that will come at a high cost, both in terms of time and money.
What those in the Emory community need to understand though is that there is no magic wand that will solve the Clifton Corridor’s traffic problems overnight. Public works projects like the proposed light rail system take lots of time, and that is by design. Sure, the system might be fundamentally flawed and thereby incapable of quickly addressing the region’s transportation needs, but there is also no one powerful enough to kickstart a project of this magnitude. Patience is paramount.
So sit tight and put on a good playlist while you are stuck in traffic around Emory. Even if everything goes according to plan (which it will not), estimates right now are for the project to be completed in 2025. MARTA is going to continue to suck for a very, very long time.
Michael is a College junior from Rye Brook, New York.
The Clifton Corridor is just one component of the plan. What about the Beltline light rail loop and the various above ground streetcar routes that could be done with this funding?
A couple of problems here —
– The proposed transit referendum bill has to pass the Senate again before it goes to the Governor’s desk. It has one final chance to do so tomorrow (SB 369 originally passed as a fireworks bill before it was rewritten in the House).
– There would be a referendum in all of Fulton county, but only citizens inside the Atlanta city limits would vote on transit. Outside Atlanta the referendum would be to fund road and bridge construction only.
– Even if it does pass, it likely won’t cover the proposed Emory line at all, since it is largely outside the city of Atlanta.
– While criticisms of MARTA’s usefulness are fair, you’ve managed to erase the east/west line entirely in your brief summation of its reach.
The more likely scenario is that if the bill passes the senate, and I hope it does, the November referendum is likely to pass as well since Atlanta residents are generally in favor of transit. What it could very likely fund are the three segments of the Atlanta Streetcar plan currently undergoing federal EIS (environmental impact) review, a requirement for potential federal matching funds. With two and a half billion or so in the bank thanks to a half percent sales tax increase, combined with federal matching funds of 25% or so, and the loan from the bank the city and MARTA would qualify for in this scenario, there’s a really good chance we could build those lines. Since the east and west lines would be on the Beltline corridor adjacent to the trail, we’d have the chance to do something really impactful, adding new north/south transit lines that complement the existing MARTA rail, with its own right of way, separated from cars.
It’s too bad that it wouldn’t do much for Emory, but it’s important to start lobbying the DeKalb lawmakers who could make it happen in the next legislative session.
Never mind that. I heard someone wrote “Trump 2016” on a sidewalk! SHUT EVERYTHING DOWN!
TRUMP 2016!… now go cry in the corner
You “hypothesize” that CSX would oppose construction of light rail near its track, yet tell us there are safety concerns when it comes to running cargo and passenger trains near each other. Those are hardly “political” concerns as your headline asserts. Clifton corridor is crowded and therefore there are a host of issues to resolve with any proposed rail solution, which will likely take longer than you do to complete your degree work.
M.A.R.T.A. Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.
Jack, you are an idiot.
Atlanta politics is so corrupt that logic has nothing to do with their expenditures.
One detail you didn’t cover is the politics of the LPA route. The proposal for the north west side of the route seems sound and logical, but the route at grade along Scott Boulevard is idiotic.
Rail transit should go above (elevated,) under (subway,) or around (at grade) road traffic congestion.
Running at grade along Scott Blvrd means that it will be subject to the traffic congestion along Scott and be required to abide by the posted speed limit (which is 25mph inside the Decatur city limits.)
Further, there is a proposed Rube Goldberg serpentine set of tunnel leading up to Scott that if stretched strait – for the same distance of tunnel – would avoid all traffic along Scott.
Point is – having a rail at grade along Scott is worse then a bus – at least a bus can drive around the traffic.