MARTA’s monthly board of directors meeting was commandeered by Eastside Beltline rail advocates on Feb. 12 after a recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution revelation that agency leaders quietly stopped work on the project last year.
In March 2025, Mayor Andre Dickens pulled support for the long-standing Eastside trail rail project and changed the location to the Southside trail. But there was no official MARTA vote, so the debate continued – until a January story from the AJC revealed the city, the Beltline and MARTA all voted to stop the project months earlier in a Program Governance Committee in May 2025.
Officials explained that since the project was at “30 percent design,” they decided the most “prudent course of action” was to pause any work on the project until the plans were reprioritized.
It sparked a wave of criticism. Advocates believed the work was continuing, and considered the move a “colossal betrayal of trust.” They also wanted the agency to make good on its list of More MARTA projects from the 2016 sales tax referendum.
On Feb. 12, those advocates showed up en masse. Dozens of Beltline Rail Now members and supporters packed into the overflow rooms an hour before the meeting began, and many signed up for public comment.
“The Eastside Beltline rail was presented to the public as a planned investment in Atlanta’s future,” Satya Bhan, from Atlanta’s Families for Safe Streets chapter, said. “The first phase of a transit loop around the Beltline that had moved through years of planning and design, and the work was halted abruptly.
Bhan continued, “Not through a full public vote, not through a transfer and reprioritization process, but through a closed committee decision following a shift in mayoral support – regardless of where someone stands on the rail alignment, the sequence matters.”
At the meeting, Beltline Rail Now and its supporters took turns scolding MARTA and demanding it reevaluate the recommendation.
MARTA officials released a public statement on the committee meeting decision, stating the decision “was consistent with the IGA process and board notification is not required.” This caused uproar among the rail supporters.
“If this is allowed to stand, and the visions we spend decades planning for is halted, I can’t imagine ever voting for another sales tax referendum ever again,” Cabbagetown resident Brandon Sutton said.
But Beltline Rail Now chair Matthew Rao said the move is part of a larger issue; pausing project work causes yet another delay to the delivery of More MARTA projects. Since the tax was created in 2016, it has raised over $800 million. Of the 17 projects, only one major project is nearing completion: Summerhill Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
“Reversing the decision you unanimously made in 2023 to construct Streetcar East – an already funded project – is no way to advance the More MARTA program,” Rao said.
He urged the board to reject the recommendation to stop work and find a way to continue the Streetcar East extension while developing rail in other parts of the 22-mile Beltline loop.
“Stopping Streetcar East won’t accelerate the delivery of those needed sections of Beltline rail,” Rao said. “It will hinder them by making the entire program more expensive and further delayed. It increases the odds that MARTA cannot deliver any rail expansion at all, and taxpayers and riders can’t accept that.”
Not everyone opposed the move, though. Several representatives from “heels and wheels” organization Better Atlanta Transit also spoke at the meeting. The organization directly disagrees with Beltline Rail Now’s pro-rail on the trail position.
Better Atlanta Transit treasurer and Portman Holdings Senior Vice President Mike Greene “applauded the decision to reevaluate some of the priorities.”
“Although some of those projects garner certain high levels of emotional connection, that does not necessarily mean that they were the right projects for our system,” Greene said.
The BAT supporters pressured the transit agency and Beltline leadership to instead focus on “heels and wheels,” two separate paths for pedestrians and cyclists or e-scooters. They also congratulated MARTA on its progress with other projects like Bus Rapid Transit.
Still, the Beltline rail advocates continued on. The public comment portion took over an hour, and most attendees had to wait in an overflow room and watch the meeting via livestream.
One Old Fourth Ward resident, Steven Imle, said the decision falls into the “Atlanta Way” of decisions being made behind closed doors. Still, he sees the rail plan as a “truly useful” piece of transit infrastructure.
“The public has the desire, and the density is there and will only grow as Atlanta does,” Imle said. “We pride ourselves in the Atlanta way, but the Atlanta way seems to be making promises in public and then breaking them behind closed doors. Beltline rail has been planned, it is wanted, and above all, it is necessary.”
