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. 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.
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