Supporters of the long-standing plan to install light rail on the Atlanta Beltline gathered Saturday morning in Reynoldstown to press Mayor Andre Dickens to move forward with the project.
The gathering came days after Dickens questioned the cost of light rail along the 22-mile loop, saying he wasn’t sure it was financially responsible or feasible.
Matthew Rao, the chairman of the community group Beltline Rail Now, said Dickens was once one of the project’s loudest proponents but has backed down at the urging of a “small group of highly organized and politically well-connected” light rail opponents.
“Some people say there’s not enough money for this,” Rao said. “I’d say we can’t afford not to do this.”
Light rail has been a component of the Beltline project since its inception. Opposition to the plans for light rail has intensified since Beltline and MARTA officials said they are ready to proceed with the first phase of transit expansion — a roughly two-mile extension of the eastside streetcar from downtown to Ponce City Market.
The streetcar extension project is estimated at $230 million, to be paid for with the More MARTA funding voters approved in 2016. The plans call for the street car route to extend east along Edgewood Avenue before connecting to the Beltline at Irwin Street NE near Auburn Avenue.
Beltline officials have said no other form of transit meets the Beltline’s needs as well as light rail. There’s a pre-existing rail corridor along the eastern portion of the trail, which itself was designed in anticipation one day adding light rail.
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
Credit: Courtesy of the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc
If city leaders are concerned about cost, Rao said, they should aggressively pursue federal funding. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has previously expressed support for the Beltline project. The bipartisan infrastructure law signed into law in 2021 made $108 billion available to support public transportation projects nationally.
In June, consultants for MARTA completed a feasibility study that recommended a system of grass-covered tracks.
While the upfront costs are higher, grass tracks require less maintenance long-term, according to the report from HDR Engineering. Green tracks are already being used on light-rail systems in New Orleans, Baltimore and Portland.
Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman spoke in support of light rail at the rally and said failure to proceed with the project would be looked on unfavorably by future generations. He said it was a mistake to limit MARTA’s reach in the 1970s and the 2000s, and reversing course on light rail would be a mistake, too.
“If we do not put rail on the Beltline, we will once again fail our future,” he said.
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Christopher Leersen, an architect who lives in Reynoldstown, said it feels like a “bad dream” that Atlanta is still debating the merits of transit on the Beltline.
“It’s mind-boggling that somehow we have disengaged from the original vision,” he said.
Dickens has floated the possibility of other transit options on the Beltline, like bus rapid transit and driverless “pods” like the Cumberland Hopper, which takes riders along the pedestrian bridge over I-285 during Braves games. The self-driving shuttle is operated by Beep, a private company, and each pod can carry eight people.
Niell Davis, another Reynoldstown resident, was critical of the idea of pods on the Beltline.
“Pods are another way to privatize people’s movement,” Davis said. “This is supposed to be a public good at this point and we see that it’s kind of being auctioned off.”
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
Credit: Steve Schaefer /
At the rally, Beltline Rail Now unveiled a banner on the side of a business abutting the trail. Rob Del Bueno, who owns a recording studio on Wylie Street SE, said he has watched the neighborhood transform since the Beltline opened. He approached the group about putting a banner on his building a few months ago because he wanted to highlight his support for the project.
Rail on the Beltline “is the whole point, as far as I was concerned,” he said.
An earlier version of this story misidentified Niell Davis and has been corrected.
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