After years of pushed plans, autonomous pod proposals and total project overhauls, the Atlanta Beltline is on the path to add light rail to the 22-mile paved corridor. But residents aren’t sure the dream will ever materialize.
It’s an ambitious plan to create a $3.5 billion rail corridor over the next several years, and it didn’t come easily. Atlanta Beltline, Inc. officials presented the early draft recommendations at a “citywide conversation” on Aug. 12.
“Transit is not inexpensive,” Atlanta Beltline, Inc. Principal Engineer Shaun Green said. “It’s absolutely critical to the lifeblood of the system and the city.”
Beltline officials recommended a proposed “CSX Alignment” for the northwest segment that would run adjacent ot the existing railroad’s right-of-way. It’s the cheapest alignment option at $800 million, and the stops would provide direct service to Piedmont Hospital, a key goal of the transit plan.
It helps tackle the daunting northwest segment, which has no abandoned rail corridor right-of-way to build on top of. It will be the priciest chunk of rail for the Beltline to build.
Other options involved raised tracks on columns and other pricey solutions. But the CSX alignment has its own challenges, like working with the company to put light rail near the freight train corridor.
The northwest quadrant would have eight stops, and the entire southern section would have 13 stops. Green said in the full vision, there’s an “effective 10-minute headway.” In later stages, Beltline staff aims to conduct ridership studies to gauge how many people would ride the rail.
But there isn’t any sort of timeline to actually implement Beltline rail. Officials promised another meeting in the fall, but the plans are in early stages – and they’re dependent on some hefty funding and city commitment.
“We’re not going to be able to drop this from the sky,” Green said. “It will take time to implement, hence the need for an implementation plan.”
During the Aug. 12 meeting, some attendees raised concerns about the plan’s implementation. One asked what would keep a future mayor from “punting the rail idea in the name of other unplanned projects.” Even if Mayor Dickens supports rail, a future city leader could retract support before it’s completed.
Green said he “can only control what I can control.”
It’s a concern linked to Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens’ uneven commitment to rail on the Beltline. Years ago, Dickens was an ardent supporter of light rail. But in 2024, the elected official backed down on an existing plan to extend the Downtown streetcar to the eastside trail.
Instead, he floated “autonomous shuttles” and pushed off prodding questions – until a surprise announcement in March when the city committed to rail on the southside trail. He cited desires for equity, “multimodal” transit in some areas and a link to other planned transit projects.
Beltline rail advocates pushed back against the plan, concerned that a complete overhaul of the long-standing streetcar extension would create a lengthy timeline and the rail would never actually happen. Some worried it would fall into a bucket of other Atlanta projects with no finish line, like the proposed four MARTA infill stations.
Pushback calmed down once engineers got to work on the official transit plans. Beltline Rail Now! applauded the early drafts, but the advocates are skeptical that the rail will survive developers’ and lobbyists’ pushback.
“We want to believe these latest plans are real; we want to believe they’ll become more than a PowerPoint fantasy,” the nonprofit continued. “But how are we supposed to get swept up in the vision when Mayor Dickens just announced his intention to scuttle the first phase of Beltline rail, the part that’s shovel-ready, fully funded and could be in service by 2028?”
Beltline officials promised more meetings as the plan inches along, but the looping light rail is still years away from breaking ground. Hopeful riders will have to wait and see if the lofty goal becomes true local transit.
“We need steel in the ground, we need tracks”, BRN said in a statement. “We’re ready to ride.”
Ridership on the Atlanta Streetcar is abysmal by national standards, 300/average day — possibly less — low even for a bus route. Buy and secure the right of way for rail but wait to build it until after all bike/ped trail segments are complete. Extend streetcar to the BeltLine for now but not on it. MARTA is one of 3 major transit systems that hasn’t recovered pre pandemic ridership levels — do something about that.
Obviously light rail is the plan, but I feel like an automated light metro, like the Vancouver sky train would fit in so much better, you would have very good headway’s (2-5) due to the smaller trains and automation, which would make it very cheap and simple to operate. It should use nimble, elevated viaducts, with small tunnels when required, providing amazing views of the city, freeing up space on the ground for pedestrians and trees; while also eliminating the need for railroad crossings which would for one being annoying for people using the trail, but being at grade would also greatly increase the risk for delays.