Commuter rail vs. Mass Transit

[Newnan_Eric]

Looks like some business leaders are starting a push for the long delayed Athens commuter rail line:

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle - 2:23 PM EST Wednesday

Trust wants commuter rail service through Gwinnett

Maybe this will push our legislators to do something about transit.

[SAV]

Looks like some business leaders are starting a push for the long delayed Athens commuter rail line:

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle - 2:23 PM EST Wednesday

Trust wants commuter rail service through Gwinnett

Maybe this will push our legislators to do something about transit.

Cobb needs to get on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Hybrid0NE]

Commuter rail runs only during peak periods, right? I wonder if Gwinnett densifies enough along the corridor whether the lines could support regular rail service like MARTA offers?

[Newnan_Eric]

Commuter rail runs only during peak periods, right? I wonder if Gwinnett densifies enough along the corridor whether the lines could support regular rail service like MARTA offers?

That is the long range plan. First, establish commuter rail lines and get the infrastructure in place. Then as it grows, some of the lines will add regular inter-city service.

One thing that will need to accompany this is Transit Oriented Development (TOD). There needs to be some walkable, dense development near these stations to make this whole thing sustainable. Yes, initially they will be intended as stops where people will drive, park, then take the train in-town, but eventually it'd be nice for most stops to be sustainable places. Fortunately, many stops are existing town centers that date back to when there was passenger rail service long ago and have an infrastructure that would support this type of development.

[macdaddy]

This map is a great resource for anybody concerned with how the region hopefully will sustain mobility in the future. With so many agencies conducting transportation planning studies, it must be hard for even them to visualize a comprehensive approach to the metro area. CFPT may be the only group that knows what everybody is planning. Thanks for finding this.

[orulz]

Actually, the Citizens for Progressive Transit (a pro-transit activist group) has proposed a lot of your suggestions. Mainly they have taken a lot of the current transit ideas already floated by various agencies and integrated them with modifications on one map:

Wow, I'm such a geek for maps like these.

Here are a few things of note in this map:

1. The loop in the south line would extend the current line beyond the airport, loop around and hook back up with the provision for a southeast line that was constructed just south of East Point station.

2. The northwest LRT line was originally proposed as the northwest heavy rail line to Marietta. I'd kind of like to see the heavy rail idea revived, if nothing else because it just seems fitting to have heavy rail at Atlantic Station. But that would probably be too expensive.

3. They added "Armour" station as a major transfer center on the Beltline, Heavy Rail, Commuter Rail, and C-Loop. This would also take the place of Atlanta's current Amtrak station on the Southeast High Speed Rail line. Good idea.

[Newnan]

This is a good idea. Any chance of it happening?

[teshadoh]

At least 4 of the projects are slated for funding or have funding:

NW BRT

Lovejoy Commuter Rail

Beltline

Memorial Dr BRT

Otherwise most of the rest comes from existing studies.