MARTA approves streetcar extension to BeltLine, prepares for audit

By Dyana Bagby

The MARTA board of directors has approved extending the Atlanta Streetcar from Downtown to Ponce City Market along the bustling Atlanta BeltLine Eastside Trail.

The board voted on April 13 to extend the streetcar, despite growing opposition from some homeowners and business owners who live and own property near the Eastside Trail.

The roughly 2-mile extension would run nearly a mile down Edgewood Avenue, up to Randolph Street, along Auburn Avenue to Irwin Street where it will connect with the Eastside Trail. From Irwin Street, the streetcar route would continue about another mile north to Ponce City Market. Five stop locations are planned.

The streetcar expansion has been in the works for years to fulfill the vision of having light rail along the entire BeltLine, a 22-mile multi-use path being built mostly along abandoned railroad tracks encircling the city’s urban core.

The estimated $230 million project is a priority for MARTA as well as Mayor Andre Dickens and the Atlanta City Council to be funded with More MARTA funds.

Fred Duncan, who lives near the Beltline, represents about 350 homeowners who live along the proposed route who oppose the project. The streetcar extension would cut through a historic area with narrow streets and disrupt the quality of life of these hundreds of homeowners, he said.

“Atlanta is a car city,” he said. “The streetcar causes traffic backups now. Spending $230 million for 2.3 miles is a total waste of money. This project has been a huge albatross since its inception.”

Julia Neighbors, a member of the Historic District Development Corporation, which owns Haugabrooks Funeral Home, said she lives on Randolph Street. She said MARTA’s community outreach has been “performative” to only reach a broad spectrum of the community impressed by the “sexy, vanity project.”

Matthew Rao is chair of Beltline Rail Now, an advocacy group pushing for light rail on the Atlanta Beltline, said the streetcar extension is critical in alleviating gridlock building up along the Beltline corridor.

He also said it is important to remember history. When Ryan Gravel envisioned the Beltline and a grassroots movement pushed political leaders to approve it, light rail was always part of that Beltline’s DNA, he said.

“The extension will bring equity and mobility in a green way,” he said. “The longer we wait, the more expensive the project will get and the harder it will be for our leaders to build what we voted for.”

Meanwhile, the city council has called for a financial audit of the More MARTA program.

In response, MARTA said the audit request was “disappointing and disingenuous” and accused the council of “playing politics,” but the transit agency ultimately said it would cooperate with the city.

The sales tax is expected to generate $2.7 billion over 40 years; more money for the More MARTA program is coming from public and private dollars.

The audit’s scope would include all revenue and expenditures tied to More MARTA and local revenue and expenditures that support operations and capital projects in Atlanta, according to the resolution. The audit would also review federal funds received and spent by More MARTA to date, including federal COVID-19 relief funds.

Old Fourth Ward and Inman Park homeowners along the route have formed the Streetcar Impact Team urging MARTA to consider alternative routes and modes of transit besides the streetcar. More than 700 homeowners in the area have signed a petition calling for MARTA to consider other options.

One alternative the group proposed is Beep, an autonomous shuttle service currently being used in Peachtree Corners, Jacksonville, FL, Yellowstone, WY, and other locations. Bentson said MARTA’s response was that it didn’t make sense for the project.

“We’re not against public transportation or even having it on the BeltLine, but it doesn’t make sense to spend this much money without any proof streetcar usage will grow,” Bentson said.