The battle over BeltLine rail: transit dream or walking haven?

Everybody loves the BeltLine.

It’s a sentiment that springs up often in conversations about Atlanta’s sprawling corridor. In the past twenty years, the path has exploded from a student thesis to the centerpiece of the city in the trees. Annually, over two million people frequent the paved and open paths.

But that success has spawned a new battle as people fret over what exactly the BeltLine is — or should be. Depending on who you ask, it’s a peaceful trail where pedestrians take their morning walks and residents gaze at from porches and patios. For others, it’s an essential piece to Atlanta’s transit and mobility.

Atlanta’s Beltline was born out of a grassroots movement, according to its original designer Ryan Gravel. As a Georgia Tech student he drafted the project in 1999 for his master’s degree thesis. The project repurposed 22 miles of a former railway corridor into a transportation corridor that looped the city.

Since the BeltLine broke ground in the early 2000s, it has exploded into one of the city’s most consequential projects. Thousands of people walk, run, scooter, ride and wheel across its length every week. As the paved path heads towards a 2030 completion date, some want to emphasize the project’s original intent.

Ryan Gravel and other BeltLine leaders have long described the corridor as an “equity project” that connected the sprawling city with a light rail line along the path. BeltLine, Inc. has since reaffirmed that original vision: In 2016, Atlanta residents approved the More MARTA sales tax, which included funding for the first chunk of rail construction.

BeltLine, Inc. has since published the findings of task forces that landed on frequent, reliable train service via one to two car vehicles and stations spaced about a half-mile apart.

The Streetcar East Extension will bring downtown’s streetcar system along Edgewood Avenue through Ponce City Market, adding five stops along the way. Some organizations like BeltLine Rail Now! have formed to push the project towards completion. The $230 million project is still in its design process and set for a 2028 completion. 

That is if it gets built at all. Opposition around the project has sprung up, like Better Atlanta Transit, a direct response to BeltLine Rail Now! They cite concern around property values, destruction of the “peaceful” trail and the hefty price tag for a project some allege won’t get used.

Other businesses along the BeltLine, like Ladybird and Kevin Rathbun Steak, oppose construction of the rail line in front of their establishments. However, the right of way for the light rail was established at the onset of the project, and advocates say the businesses took a risk by building where they did.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, once an ardent supporter of light rail, has backed down in recent months. Publicly, he has said the city is exploring different options for transit along the BeltLine like “autonomous vehicles.”

While some fiercely oppose any change to their often-used trail, Gravel insists the BeltLine was never meant to be a trail project at all.

“It’s not a trail project; it’s a city building project, and the city is getting built, just like we said, you know, but if we want it to be for everybody, then we have to do it in the way that the people said that should be done,” Gravel said. “That includes transit as one piece of a robust kind of infrastructure.”

The Center for Civic Innovation hosted a panel on June 18 to break down the arguments for and against BeltLine rail. The Center’s founder and executive director Rohit Malhotra moderated the conversation between BeltLine designer Ryan Gravel, BeltLine Rail Now! Member Beverly Miller, Georgia Tech professor Hans Klein, disability advocate Carden Wyckoff and Co-Principal of Urban Oasis Development Joel Dixon.

“Everyone who is on this panel is here because they care about presumably two things: One, you care about Atlanta; you’re here because you genuinely want Atlanta to get this right, and the city means something to you. Malhotra said.” Second is that you care about people. I don’t think anybody on this panel is anti-people, but you may have differences in how you approach that.”

Still, tensions were high throughout the hours-long conversation. Some in the crowd cheered for certain statements and booed the rest.

To open the discussion designer Gravel harkened back to his experience originally creating the BeltLine in 1999. The young urban designer worked with middle-aged Black women in low-income neighborhoods to drum up grassroots support for the project. He said it wasn’t easy to get buy-in, but it was necessary for an equitable success.

Joel Dixon, a developer and lifelong Atlantan said transit was key to get people on board. Residents on the Westside and Southside were skeptical about the green space since it was a “luxury” compared to their news.

“The Beltline was being not just promoted but promised,” Dixon said. “It included transit, but it was trails, transit and green space and I’m a strong believer that we don’t take away from our promises.”

He sees light rail as a chance to return to the BeltLine’s equitable intention, arguing it was not constructed equitably by prioritizing wealthier neighborhoods first. Still, the streetcar extension will kick off on the Eastside trail in largely higher-income neighborhoods.

BeltLine Rail Now! Representative Beverly Miller, who moved to Inman Park a decade ago on the promise of light rail, said the location currently has the density to make the transit successful since that’s where development began.

“We believe, as I said earlier, in transit equity for everyone, no one should be isolated from other people and from resources,” Miller said. We need connectivity, and we need livability; that’s what we’re fighting for.”

But residents like Hans Klein don’t want to rely on the BeltLine’s original promise. He’s a member of Better Atlanta Transit, an organization built in opposition to the light rail. Instead, he wants to achieve equity through a “spoke model” that pushes transit out to further reaches of the city.

Klein wants to bring people from lower-income neighborhoods further from the urban center into Atlanta, “where jobs are.” Largely, he pushed for Bus Rapid Transit that fans out through the city.

“With enough points of intersection, you don’t need BeltLine rail,” Klein said.

He argues that people should use “micro-mobility” options to get around the 22-mile BeltLine. As an avid cyclist, he wants more electronic bicycles to move quickly along the trail. Others have advocated for separate “heels and wheels” options to clear up congestion on the BeltLine.

But micro-mobility doesn’t work for everyone. Namely, disability advocate and wheelchair user Carden Wyckoff pointed out how rail is the only option that would increase her mobility. She relies on transit to get around.

“I prefer train transportation because I don’t have to be locked down on my wheelchair,” Wyckoff said. “Whereas buses or pods or anything that’s not on a dedicated guideway, I would have to be locked down.”

Without transit, she currently has to plan out her trips. Sometimes she ends up rolling a mile along the BeltLine. Other times inaccessible design means she can’t get to her destination at all. For her, the BeltLine’s equity comes through in universal design.

“Disabled people need to be the main part of the decision-making process, and that’s the reason why I’m so involved in the city of Atlanta,” Wyckoff said.

Despite opposition, studies from the BeltLine have repeatedly come out in favor of rail. While some are worried it will shrink the path and take away from the arboretum, Gravel said the plan is for an eco-friendly electric train on a grassy right of way.

“The trains that they’re showing are beautiful; the tracks can be gorgeous,” Gravel said. “What Atlanta always does is look down and down for what our future is gonna look like, but we can be like the Beltline rail is beautiful.”