Streetcars returning to Atlanta

2.6-mile rail line

Vilas Bhuchar, Dec 10, 10.

A $72-million project is expected to bring streetcars back to Atlanta for the first time in more than six decades, according to the LA Times.

The project, funded largely by a $47.6 million Department of Transportation (DOT) grant awarded in October and expected to be completed in 2013, would result in a 2.6-mile rail line that will cater to tourists, connecting downtown’s Centennial Olympic Park - home to a Coca-Cola museum and the Georgia Aquarium - to the popular but less centrally-located Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, adds the story.

While some Atlantans are optimistic that the streetcar line will boost economic development and be the beginning of a more ambitious streetcar system, some critics believe the city is spending too much money on a project that won’t help to mitigate traffic into and out of the city, notes the story:

Critics, however, note that the rail loop will do little to alleviate traffic in a metro area burdened with the nation’s third-worst commute, according to a February analysis by Forbes magazine.

For metro residents like Randy Mattox, the effort seems like a matter of misplaced priorities.

“Will it help Atlanta as a whole? Absolutely not,” said Mattox, 49, whose round-trip car commute from suburban East Point to Atlanta can be as long as two hours.

“It wouldn’t make any difference at all for me,” said optician David Mayes, 32, whose commute has been complicated by recent cuts to MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, however, believes these critics, many from the suburbs of Atlanta, are missing the big picture of the streetcar system, which he defended in a November 12th Atlanta-Journal Constitution commentary. In his post, Reed cited an increase in jobs, a boost to the city’s tourism and convention business, and a needed modernization of the city’s transportation infrastructure as reasons the system is “an important win for the city of Atlanta and its residents.”

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Photo credit: Georgia Transit Connector