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.”
Lets restrict mobility and make it tougher for people to move around the city that we spent millions of dollars trying to increase traffic to businesses, who pay taxes! Madness, these kinds of forward lookiong endeavors are only for conservative cities. Lets snuff out small business by limiting the diversity of customers!
A few things not noted in this article:
1. The 30% of design stat is misleading (it’s an engineering milestone, not the actual percentage of the project that’s done). The city stated several weeks ago that the design for the Eastside rail corridor was actually only one month from completion.
2. There were dozens of pro-rail advocates that came out to speak, and dozens more that emailed in public comments. There was only a small fraction (4) of people that came to speak against rail, and most of them were Better Atlanta Transit members.
3. We need to be clear with the public that ‘Better Atlanta Transit’ is not a legitimate micromobility organization and not representative of real public opinion. Its only agenda is to attack Beltline Rail, and has little regard for ‘wheels and heels’ or any other kind of pedestrian or cycling safety. Look at any of its events and social media posts and try to find one instance of them doing any kind of event or advocacy for micromobilty in Atlanta that isn’t related to attacking beltline rail. This is counter to other legitimate organizations like ThreadATL and PropelATL which are genuinely focused on improving safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians in the city. The board and members of BAT are made up of people who are largely either A) heavily invested in the auto industry, or B) own property near the Eastside trail, which becomes more valuable the less access other neighborhoods have to the Beltline. The debate over Beltline Rail is not a 50/50 debate or even a 70/30 debate. It’s favored and was voted for by the vast majority of the Atlanta public.
Hear hear, especially with regards to point #3. “Better” Atlanta Transit is the ultimate misnomer when they’re just purely Anti Transit.
All one has to do is go to the website BetterAtlantaTransit.org to see that the above anonymous comment is factually incorrect. Why not discuss Beltline rail on its merits and on the merits of the alternatives rather than relying on personal attacks and outright falsehoods?
As a longtime environmental journalist who has no interest in the auto industry and doesn’t own property near the Beltline, I can see that rail on the wealthiest stretch of the Beltline would serve an elite ridership and would starve more impactful transit projects (such as the Hollowell Pkwy-North Ave BRT).
Wheels and heels is a greener, more human-scaled approach. It leverages the Beltline’s proven utility as a first-mile/last-mile connector that enhances equity by allowing more More MARTA funds to be spent on transit TO the Beltline rather than on it.
Atlantans would also be rightfully pissed if work to advance transit along Campbellton stopped without MARTA Board approval or public awareness.
You don’t tee up a transit project for over decades across multiple governing agencies only to abandon progress without public awareness.
At a time where Executive powers far overreach, this is merely another example at the local level.
Need MARTA to move the transit projects forward & stop obstructing progress, regardless of committee or mayor flavor of the week.
Atlanta talks about celebrating the people. But in the end it has always followed the money. The problem in this case is it’s following the little money, a few merchants along the Beltline, rather than the big money available from better transportation. Same thing on Peachtree. That’s where your bike lane should be. It’s already a two-way street, which means it goes at 20 mph, just like a bike.
Atlanta talks, yes and It’s even worse than that. It’s spouting about being the best place for all kinds of things, meanwhile the livable stats are in the lowest if not worst in the entire nation. That means the Atlanta “leadership” has no responsibility to truth. The State of GA will eventually be affected when the bailouts come due for all this nonsense and the Northern suburbs demand an airport in order to remain viable economically due to 2 hour commute times.
I support the separation of “heels and wheels” advocated by Better Atlanta Transit. This is a sincere point of view, based on regular use of the Beltline. 20 years ago, transit may have made more sense. Now, there are way to many electric motorcycles and other modes with wheels in conflict with pedestrians on the trail. It would be far better to have separation that to increase the crowding with an unnecessary train on the path. We need more transit to the Beltline, not on it.
What data made you believe Beltline Rail was unnecessary at a time when there are only four MARTA trains serving the city? The Beltline used to be a rail corridor. It should be one again.
The City of Atlanta will pay dearly for this in 2029. We will be pursuing a new mayor ASAP.
Let’s acknowledge the optics and unintended messages that being conveyed in all this. I am in some of these rooms and read the comments sections – I see and hear what’s being said.
The way that Beltline rail proponents speak to and about leadership and other parts of the city is not helping the cause. It’s this way in the entire urban planning set, if we’re honest. What are they saying? About whom? Look at the images that accompany this story – what are the demographics?
Leadership pulled a fast-one and were wrong, but there’s clearly little concern about wholistic transportation issues in this city from pro-rail folks. The message – true or not – is “We want what we want now because we gentrified the neighborhoods and are entitled.” All the insults and coded messages I’ve witnessed don’t make the case for why Beltline rail is urgent compared to other needs.
I’m in NW and see first-hand how urgent the need for solutions in SW is. SE can wait. They were wronged and the City should atone for that, but they can truly wait.