Atlanta Beltline CEO: Eastside Trail light rail no longer makes sense
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The potential for extended disruptions to businesses along the Beltline’s most popular stretch of trail played a significant role in the City of Atlanta and Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s decision to cancel light rail plans between downtown and Ponce City Market earlier this year.
That’s one insight shared this week by Clyde Higgs, Beltline CEO and president, during an in-depth, sit-down interview with WABE host Rose Scott on the “Closer Look” program.
The Monday interview came a few days after Beltline designers detailed tentative plans for an estimated $3.5-billion transit expansion outlook around the 22-mile loop, for which funding has not been identified.
Back in April 2023, MARTA’s Board of Directors unanimously approved a formal measure to begin work extending downtown’s current streetcar loop to the Eastside Trail and on to Ponce City Market, an effort expected to cost roughly $230 million, with fare service beginning (per the most recent estimates) in 2028.
Two years later, city and Beltline officials shocked many in Atlanta's real estate and urbanist communities by announcing those plans were off.
In his WABE interview, Higgs said installing a light rail system on the Eastside Trail would have taken at least five years and would have caused a “disturbance” to adjacent businesses and job hubs for the duration.
“I don’t think Eastside [Trail] rail makes sense at this point,” Higgs told Scott. “You’re going to shut down a lot of businesses if you were to do light rail… that’s going to be a major challenge.”
Higgs acknowledged the “the world has changed in the last 15 years” since earlier Beltline transit plans were conceived, and the recent transit study has shown that other technologies such as autonomous vehicles would cost a fraction of light rail.
“We’re not saying no transit [on the Eastside Trail]—we’re just having a debate on the type of transit,” said Higgs.
Light-rail transit remains in plans—and in demand—for other sections of the Beltline loop, especially among “transit-dependent communities” along the Southside Trail, where the corridor is “still kind of this open greenfield opportunity,” per Higgs.
An estimate cost of $270 million for 42 transit vehicles in the recent transit study is a reference to light-rail trains and not autonomous pods or other vehicles, Higgs noted.
Regarding trail construction, Higgs said 13 miles of the mainline loop is open today, and four additional miles are still on schedule to debut before 2026 FIFA World Cup matches kick off in June. All mainline trails remain on pace to open by 2030.
Listen to the full interview here.
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If there are any lawyers out there reading this, we want to file a class action lawsuit against the Beltline to retake the funds we apportioned to them for this project.
First the abandonment of affordable housing on the Beltline, the departure of Ryan Gravel, the annoucement that they wouldn't build the Northwest rail alignment that received the most votes (connecting Bankhead, Westside Paper, West Midtown @ Howell Mill, Ikea, Atlantic Station, Brookwood, and Piedmont Hospital), and today we get this news?
Transit doesn't "make sense" on a dense, established corridor? But it "makes sense" on an "open greenfield"? And we're back to talking about paving a road for vehicles on the Beltline?
This is beyond ridiculous. It's a breach in the public trust. We were promised transit and affordable housing in exhange for our tax money. Instead we got a corrupt project to enrich private investors.
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