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MARTA BEGINS ATLANTA SERVICE ENHANCEMENTS

Just three months after Atlanta residents

voted to increase their transit sales tax by

half a penny, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid

Transit Authority is already using some of

that new revenue to step up service. On Feb.

4, it upgraded the 78 Cleveland Avenue and

83 Campbellton Road bus routes to “arterial

rapid transit” status: buses now run every

ten minutes during rush hour, every 12

minutes during other weekday hours, every

20 minutes late evenings, and every 15

minutes on weekends. MARTA also turned

Route 60 Hightower/Moores Mill into a

“frequent local service” route, with buses

operating every 15 minutes during the day

and every 20 minutes during the evening.

It’s also adjusting Route 2 Ponce de

Leon/East Lake and Route 102 North

Avenue/Candler Park schedules to provide

every-15-minute service along the stretch of

Ponce they share between the Boulevard-

Monroe Drive intersection and Highland

Avenue. Those changes are just the

beginning. Additional service enhancements

are expected in April, including a new Route

94 that could be the forerunner of a bus

rapid transit line along Northside Drive, and

a new neighborhood circulator on the west

side, to be designated Route 865 Boulder

Park Drive. More service enhancements are

MARTA map shows new “arterial rapid transit service” in

red and new “frequent local service” in orange, along

with existing MARTA rail routes.

expected in August and December. MARTA

says larger projects, such as a beltline-based

light-rail network or a westward extension

of the Blue heavy-rail line, will be green-

lighted on a case-by-case basis, depending

on the availability of federal matching funds. In

the meantime, the City of Atlanta is updating its

nine-year-old Connect Atlanta transportation

plan. You can take an online survey or find out

about public meetings this month at

atlantastransportationplan.com.

(More on next page)

February 2017 newsletter

Supporting Quality Public Transportation in Atlanta

A LONG WAIT IN FULTON COUNTY?

Atlanta’s transit options are expanding because of a

November vote that raised the city’s MARTA sales

tax to 1.5%. The MARTA tax rate for the rest of

Fulton County remains at 1%. Fulton County

Chairman John Eaves wants to follow Atlanta’s lead,

but he’s been facing opposition from a number of the

county’s mayors. Meeting last month, officials

decided to delay any move for a referendum until

there’s agreement on what kind of transit expansion

is needed. Some people want to wait and see what

MARTA does in Atlanta before committing to any

Fulton tax increase, but that could be a very long

wait: MARTA’s Atlanta expansion blueprint is a

long-range plan, and it will take several decades to

complete the most ambitious projects.

“PATH FORWARD” TRANSIT LEGISLATION

ADVANCES AT STATE CAPITOL

By a vote of 166 to 1, the Georgia House of

Representatives has endorsed a bill that would create

a Commission on Transit Governance and Funding.

Similar legislation is pending in the State Senate. The

measures would create a special panel to study

options for funding and coordinating transit

operations in metro Atlanta and across the state, with

an eye toward drafting legislation before next year’s

session of the General Assembly. The bills come in

response to a recent legislative study calling on the

state to create a “path forward for transit,” and

suggesting that the path could include annual state

funding. That would be a major policy change. While

the state subsidizes the regional GRTA Xpress bus

network, it has never been a source of annual

operating funds for MARTA or any other local transit

provider.

MARTA map identifies six potential high-capacity transit

corridors through Clayton County. An initial study gave

the Norfolk Southern and SR 54 corridors the highest

scores.

MARTA MULLS OPTIONS FOR CLAYTON

HIGH-CAPACITY TRANSIT CORRIDOR

After Clayton County voted to join MARTA in 2014,

the transit agency had conventional bus service up

and running within months. But under its agreement

with the county, MARTA also promised to make

plans for “high-capacity transit” in the form of a rail

line or a bus rapid transit route through the county.

MARTA has now ranked six potential high-capacity

transit corridors (see map), based on factors including

connections to key activity centers, service to

traditional transit markets (i.e., non-drivers), the

ability to serve commuters, and accessibility to

pedestrians and bicyclists. While no final decisions

have been made, two corridors in particular won the

highest scores: one is the Norfolk Southern Railway

line to Lovejoy; the other – called the SR 54 corridor

– runs on streets that parallel the Norfolk Southern

line, along Central Avenue, Old Dixie Highway,

Forest Parkway, Jonesboro Road, Main Street and

Tara Boulevard. The rankings do not consider

construction costs, environmental impacts, or other

factors. And MARTA has yet to address the question

of whether the service should be provided by trains or

bus rapid transit. All that will come later.

(More on next page)

BRAVES TRANSIT PLAN IS NO HOME RUN

New CobbLinc circulator will link Sun Trust Park with the

Cumberland Transfer Center (from Bravesupdate.com).

With Opening Day just weeks away, the Cobb

County Commission has finally approved a plan for

bus service to the new Atlanta Braves ballpark, but if

the plan was in any way intended to fight game-day

traffic congestion, it’s the equivalent of putting a .150

hitter into the heart of the batting order. CobbLinc

(formerly Cobb Community Transit) will launch a

circulator route linking the new ballpark with

Cumberland Mall and the Cumberland Transfer

Center. And even though county officials are touting

the new route (and a companion circulator that will

run along Cumberland Parkway and Paces Ferry

Road) as an all-day, year-long service for workers

and residents in the area, it’s no coincidence that the

buses will begin operating March 31, the day the

Braves are scheduled to play their first game at Sun

Trust Field. The new service may attract drivers who

want to park at satellite lots before boarding buses to

the ballpark, but it will be of limited use to fans who

want to use transit from other parts of metro Atlanta.

While circulator buses will make connections at the

Cumberland Transfer Center to CobbLinc buses to

MARTA’s Arts Center rail station and MARTA

buses to the Midtown station, the circulator won’t run

on Sundays, and riders attending night games may

need to keep a close eye on the clock: the circulator

buses are scheduled to stop running at 11 p.m., and

even if that service is extended when games run late,

the final connecting CobbLinc bus heading back to

Atlanta normally leaves at 11 p.m., and the last

connecting MARTA bus leaves around midnight. The

Braves say CobbLinc may add some extra trips on

game days. They also say a private Braves “shuttle

service” will link the ballpark with “key points of

interest in metro Atlanta,” but no details have been

released yet. In a recent interview with Atlanta’s

Channel 46, Cumberland Community Improvement

District Chairman Ted Leithead predicted that light-

rail trains or bus rapid transit service will eventually

come to the Cumberland area, but not for at least five

years.

GWINNETT CHAIRMAN PROMISES TRANSIT

VOTE, EVENTUALLY

Chairman Charlotte Nash says Gwinnett County will

begin its long-promised “comprehensive transit

development study” within the next 90 days. The

study is expected to take about a year, and Nash says

that at some point after

the results are reported,

Gwinnett residents will

get the chance to vote in a

transit referendum. It’s

not clear yet when they’ll

vote, or exactly what they

would be voting on.

Gwinnett County has

long resisted joining

MARTA. It began

operating a small bus system of its own in 2000, but

in recent months, several large employers have

announced plans to leave the county citing

transportation concerns. The latest announcement

came just this month from Westrock, a paper and

packaging company that employs 800 people in

Norcross. The company says it will be moving to

new offices in Fulton County, near the Sandy Springs

MARTA station.

(More on next page)

A MARTA train departs the Airport station (Photo by Jim

Dexter).

MARTA AIRPORT LINE “BEST IN NATION”

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

enjoys the best transit access in the nation, according

to a new study by MileCards.com, a website for

people who use “frequent flier” credit cards. The

report says the 17-minute MARTA ride from

downtown Atlanta to the airport is faster than driving,

and it adds that MARTA’s $2.50 base fare is “money

well-spent, given Atlanta’s notorious congestion and

unpredictable traffic.” From CfPT’s perspective, the

one drawback to MARTA airport service is the fact

that the line ends at the domestic terminal. Travelers

heading for international flights have to complete

their trips on shuttle buses. While it’s unfortunate that

MARTA’s tracks were not extended when the

international terminal was built, an extension could

be part of a future high-capacity transit line to

Clayton County.

A STOP SIGN IN BROOKHAVEN

MARTA has given up, at least for now, on plans to

build a transit-oriented development at its

Brookhaven rail station. Even though TODs are

designed to increase transit ridership, neighborhood

groups feared the retail-residential-office project

would increase traffic congestion, and pressured

Brookhaven city officials to suspend negotiations. In

an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,

CfPT President Lee Biola noted that other MARTA

TOD projects are progressing. Transit-oriented

developments are under construction at the

Edgewood/Candler Park and Avondale stations,

ground will be broken for a Chamblee station TOD in

a few weeks, and the Atlanta Regional Commission

recently gave Decatur $100 thousand to study

possible development at the East Lake MARTA

station. On a related note, DeKalb County has agreed

to spend $180 million to develop a covered street

linking the Doraville MARTA station with a nearby

transit-oriented development planned for the site of a

former General Motors plant. There’s been

speculation the Doraville development also could

include a new Atlanta Amtrak station.

DESPITE THE HEADLINES, MARTA IS SAFE

2017 got off to a bad start, a far as MARTA Police

were concerned. A 49-year-old man is charged with

stabbing a panhandler to death at the Avondale

station on Jan. 24, and a teenager is charged with the

fatal shooting of a man who was getting on a bus at

the College Park station Feb. 2. The incidents

prompted the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to raise

the question, “After recent killings, how safe is

MARTA?” but in reality, incidents like these are

extremely rare. There were no homicides on MARTA

during fiscal 2016, The Part 1 crime rate was just

3.47 for every one million rides, and most of those

crimes were non-violent. As the AJC itself points out,

dozens of people are killed on I-285 every year.

Additionally, metro Atlanta has lately suffered an

epidemic of carjackings and other crimes at gas

stations. Stopping for gas is a necessary part of

driving, but so far, the AJC has not asked the

question, “How Safe is Driving?”

IS THAT THE CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO?

High-speed rail has become an issue in Chattanooga,

TN. A candidate for mayor, former Chattanooga City

Councilman David Crockett, says if he’s elected, he

will push for federal funding for a 180-mph

passenger rail line between his city and Atlanta. The

incumbent, Mayor Andy Berke, dismissed that

proposal as a pipe dream two years ago, telling the

Chattanooga Times Free Press, “The federal

government is not in a position right now to do large-

scale infrastructure investments.” Even though the

proposal has languished for years, the Federal

Railroad Administration recently completed a draft

environmental impact study suggesting that a route

along I-75 could be faster and less costly to build

(Continued on next page)

than an alternative route through Rome, GA. Many

observers believe that if high-speed rail ever does

come to Atlanta, it will more likely be in the form of

a line to Charlotte and the Northeast.

ALL STOPS

Georgia Democratic Congressman Hank Johnson has

taken a seat on the House Committee on

Transportation and Infrastructure, a position that

could help him steer more federal transit money to

metro Atlanta… Former US Labor Secretary Elaine

Chao is the new US Transportation Secretary, after

winning Senate confirmation… A few days after

Chao took office, the Federal Railroad

Administration announced it is delaying a $647

million grant to Caltrain, jeopardizing the agency’s

plan to electrify its San Francisco-area commuter rail

line… Before stepping down last month, former

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx participated

in ceremonies in Charlotte, NC, breaking ground for

a two-mile extension of the CityLYNX streetcar

line… Oklahoma City has broken ground for a 4.6-

mile downtown streetcar line… Seattle’s Sound

Transit enjoyed a 23% ridership gain in 2016, led by

a 65% increase in light-rail patronage after the

opening of three new stations… Houston’s

METRORail streetcar line carried a record-breaking

680 thousand riders (no doubt including some

Atlantans) during Super Bowl festivities… In an out-

of-court settlement, the New Orleans Regional

Transit Authority has agreed to make every bus stop

accessible to riders in wheelchairs by 2031…

Business executives Alicia Ivey and Al Pond,

Healthcare executive Thomas Worthy, and former

Decatur Mayor Bill Floyd have joined MARTA’s

Board of Directors… A study conducted for

Gainesville’s Hall Area Transit recommends running

buses later in the evening, extending two local bus

routes, and establishing commuter bus service to

Atlanta, possibly through a connection to Gwinnett

County Transit buses at Buford… Citing a ridership

decline, Savannah’s Chatham Area Transit has

discontinued its CAT Prowler, a late-night weekend

service that catered to Savannah State University

students… Augusta city officials have voted to accept

100 surplus bus shelters from Jacksonville, FL; the

shelters will have to be picked up from Jacksonville

and refurbished before they can be installed.

Citizens for Progressive Transit

Box 56306, Atlanta GA 30343

info@cfpt.org

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