New MARTA Station Ideas

[AlabamaGuy2007]

There are numerous locations where new stations are needed. I remember in the mid '90s, a private company wanted to build a maglev line from the Georgia State Station to Turner Field, then on to the West End Station. The proposal got hung up in legal matters, and died on the vine.

That woulda been awesome had it been built. But dang, imagine how much it would cost.

[Newnan]

how about a stop at the south fulton parkway? I just drove through there today and the growth is absolutely unbelievable! A stop somewhere around there would really pay off in a few years. Don't really know about intown.

[teshadoh]

^ MARTA has been planning a West line extension just the past few years. So far though the leading plan is to build a BRT line to South Fulton. Too many people dismiss how crucial South Fulton Pkwy is to the metro's economy.

[macdaddy]

Isn't that extension to parellel I-20 west towards Fulton Industrial Boulevard, though? I agree that South Fulton needs rail service. Another good location for a new station could be near Camp Creek Parkway at I-285, or where Camp Creek crosses Welcome All Road.

[ryanmckibben]

Or, and this is a big OR, we could all begin to realize that suburban rail will never be anything more then anti transit material for Wendell Cox and his band of idiots. Suburbia=road. Urban=rail. The sooner we realize that rail will not work in the population densities of post WWII burbs and that highways are completelely destructive to vibrant urban neighborhoods the better off we will all be. Instead of spending hundreds of millions if not billions of $$$ on heavy rail lines that 1 in 1000 people will use, we could take that same amount of money and almost completely rebuild Atlanta's streetcar system.

[Lady Celeste]

I'm sure....due to cost.....that there will never be heavy rail roaring into Alpharetta. I have said amny a times that MARTA had a meeting with north Fulton residents about MARTA coming into the area. We were elated at the possibilities. A station at GA400 @ Spalding (Dunwoody), GA400 @ Northridge (Dunwoody), GA400 @ Holcomb Bridge (Roswell/Norcross), GA400 @ Mansell Rd (Alpharetta) and GA400 @ Windward Pkwy (Alpharetta). It was great news until MARTA said that the cost would be $5,000,000,000...that was year 2000 money...and would not be completed by 2025. Oh well....I know the cost are probably almost double but it would have been nice to have those stations. Unlike other suburban locales, Alpharetta did not seem adverse to the idea of MARTA and the supposed "crime" that it brings. We were thinking of the future and Alpharetta had it's sights on being the next Buckhead....then came the DOTCOM bust....oh well.

[Andrea]

I'm sure....due to cost.....that there will never be heavy rail roaring into Alpharetta. I have said amny a times that MARTA had a meeting with north Fulton residents about MARTA coming into the area. We were elated at the possibilities. A station at GA400 @ Spalding (Dunwoody), GA400 @ Northridge (Dunwoody), GA400 @ Holcomb Bridge (Roswell/Norcross), GA400 @ Mansell Rd (Alpharetta) and GA400 @ Windward Pkwy (Alpharetta). It was great news until MARTA said that the cost would be $5,000,000,000...that was year 2000 money...and would not be completed by 2025.

They need somebody like Bechtel or Fluor to tackle this in a PPI. I bet they could it in half the time at half the cost.

Instead, Georgia will simply build more roads, and add more lanes to GA 400.

[mahanakorn]

Or, and this is a big OR, we could all begin to realize that suburban rail will never be anything more then anti transit material for Wendell Cox and his band of idiots. Suburbia=road. Urban=rail. The sooner we realize that rail will not work in the population densities of post WWII burbs and that highways are completelely destructive to vibrant urban neighborhoods the better off we will all be. Instead of spending hundreds of millions if not billions of $$$ on heavy rail lines that 1 in 1000 people will use, we could take that same amount of money and almost completely rebuild Atlanta's streetcar system.

Agreed!

MARTA, like BART, was envisioned as a hybrid system - part urban subway, part commuter rail. BART now has an unwieldy system of expensive heavy rail stretching 40 miles into the East Bay suburbs, with only a few miles of rail and 7 stations serving densely populated SF.

Unlike the Bay Area suburbs, however, the Atlanta suburbs largely snubbed a system that would have subsidized their commutes, leaving Atlanta with a stubby ITP heavy rail system and the suburbs choking on their own traffic. Maybe a blessing in disguise.

Let GDOT build their blacktop fantasies OTP. Let GDOT run express busses around the perimeter. Let suburban bus systems and GDOT commuter rail and busses feed MARTA at its perimeter end stations.

Now that city and ITP population is booming, MARTA can concentrate on what rail does best, move large numbers of people thru densely populated urban areas. Run frequent trains, so that people don't mind connecting. Introduce zone or distance based fares (flat fares subsidize suburban commuters and penalize urbanites who just want to travel a station or two). Fill in service gaps and feed heavy rail with streetcars and an efficient bus system (for short trips) and LRT (on dedicated rights of way for longer segments like Beltline, Emory and Northwest).

Connect it all with a smart card that can be used for payment on all systems.

Atlanta wisely built the spine 30 years ago. Now is the time to build ribs.