Modern Mobility Through BeltLine Rail
— Rail Writer Kevin Porter
For many world cities, the streetcar or tram is their symbol, part of their identity. Streetcars can be beautiful and not only nostalgic. It’s all in how they are designed. Above: Lisbon, Portugal’s Tram 28. Image license: Matthew Rao through Shutterstock. 2024
As an Atlanta resident since 2011, I've watched some incredible urbanization and growth in Atlanta. Living in Midtown for years, I watched empty parking lots and seedy fast-food joints transform into modern dense development. Now as a homeowner in Reynoldstown, I'm watching the same transformation adding densification and vibrancy around the Beltline corridor in former industrial wasted space. What I haven’t seen however, is any meaningful improvement of transit infrastructure to follow suit.
Sure, MARTA’s central North/South line was great when I was a Midtown resident, but it lacks coverage and frequency and doesn’t serve a significant portion of the city. For the rest of us, we’re stuck with clogged and crumbling streets, daily struggles for parking near our destinations, and all the negative health effects associated with automobiles, ever-present for everyone both inside and out of a car.
What if I told you there’s a great solution to all these frustrations and that I’ve seen it with my own eyes?
As an employee of a large airline headquartered down at ATL, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to see and experience city life all across the world, both in the US and abroad. A common thread in each of my favorite destinations is the ease of getting around (and I don’t mean in a car!). As opposition to Beltline Rail in Atlanta grows more and more vocal, I find the arguments against transit hard to comprehend. I’ve seen it work, and work well. There are plenty of cities around the globe that can be used as living testaments to the efficacy of light rail transit.
The idea of trail and transit together in a greenway with all the elements of the city around it was new when Ryan Gravel introduced it here in Atlanta. The idea has caught on worldwide. Above: LuxTram in Luxembourg City. Image source: Luxembourg Times
To those who are opposed to the visual impact of rails and trolley poles and the risk to the beauty of our city, I can only say turn to Lisbon, Portugal, where the 100-year-old Tram 28 complements a vibrant city, the tram itself acting as an icon of Lisbon. Images of the tram are sold as trinkets and in artwork for tourists to look back upon fondly; the tram is an asset, and an icon of the city.
To those who think this might be a phenomenon unique to Europe, instead turn to our neighbors in New Orleans, where the St. Charles streetcar has taken its place as a backbone of some of the city’s most charming neighborhoods, or even to Boston where the quirky Green Line adds its own character to any visit to Fenway Park. And San Francisco’s world-famous cable cars are technically light rail. Done right, urban light rail provides connectivity and charm to a neighborhood – both are valuable assets.
BeltLine rail is planned by ABI and MARTA's design-engineering firm HDR to be in grass tracks with landscaped medians in between the multi-purpose trail and the transit. Grass tracks absorb stormwater runoff and airborne particulates while deadening sound and creating the greenway. This rendering shows a section south of North Ave. Image courtesy Atlanta BeltLine Inc.
To those who want to prioritize radial spokes over circumferential connections – first, let me say that Atlanta already has some of the best spokes around. MARTA’s existing heavy rail lines are the envy of many cities, running fast and frequent service to the four cardinal directions. What MARTA lacks is connectivity to all the points in between. Circumferential belt projects are crucial to supplement even the best arterial systems.
Look to Paris, where they have spent the last two decades building out an impressive circumferential modern tramway network, this in a city already boasting one of the most connected and vast subway and commuter rail transit networks in the world. To drive ridership, a system must be connected and useful for all possible trips: commuting, leisure, and recreation. The 1970s downtown commuter rail model of MARTA was a good first step – but it’s not enough, and it doesn’t reflect the flexible modern mobility that is so desperately needed in Atlanta.
Preferred routes for Beltline rail to circumnavigate the city and connect to MARTA’s “spokes” on each side of the heavy rail system. Blue circles indicate options for new heavy rail/light rail infill stations. 40 MARTA bus lines cross the 22-mile BeltLine loop. Reynoldstown is located just east of the proposed Hulsey Yard infill station. Image courtesy MARTA with proposed Infill station locations added by BeltLine Rail Now.
And finally, to those who believe rail to be an antiquated technology, better replaced with pods or automated cars – I’ve seen some of the quirky transit “projects of the future,” and personally, I’d take a reliable “steel wheels, steel rail” transit system any day. From Seattle’s quirky one-stop Monorail, to Morgantown, WV’s or London Heathrow’s automated pods, to the tiny People-Movers in Jacksonville, Detroit, and Miami – there are plenty of less-than-successful futurism projects to choose from as examples of how these ideas can go wrong. Not to say that these other systems didn’t have promise, but they just didn’t bring anything to the table that couldn’t have been done more effectively and cheaply using good-old rail, and they suffered as a result. Rubber-tire vehicles are inherently louder, less comfortable to ride, and more maintenance-intensive than rail. Whether we’re talking on-wire catenary or off-wire battery trams (which I might point out work great in Portland, Detroit, Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Tempe, Charlotte, and elsewhere – off-wire streetcars are hardly an unproven gadget-bahn like the proposed “pods”). Conventional tramway can be built relatively cheaply (the cost of 22 miles BeltLine rail is less than the new 3-mile automated people mover at the LA Airport-LAX), in a narrow dedicated right-of-way, and with far less environmental impact and far greater rider capacity and rider comfort than a rubber tire system. Don’t forget that automated pods require a guideway too – arguing for pods along the BeltLine is like arguing for a two-lane 22-mile paved road along the corridor! I’d much rather have some nice grass-lined tram tracks like those in New Orleans than a concrete automated guideway like the one that runs underneath Atlanta’s airport.
All that to say: transit done well is an incredible asset to any city. Atlanta’s been extremely fortunate to see all of the private investment it has in the last decade, and it’s about time we see some solid public investment in our infrastructure to serve it. I can’t wait for the day that I have the choice of hopping on my bike if it’s nice out, or hopping on a modern, fast, and air-conditioned streetcar to whisk me to my destination on days that it’s not. Let’s build some rail now!
Kevin is a Reynoldstown resident and an Aerospace Engineer who works at the Atlanta airport. He has been an Atlanta resident since 2011 and became a homeowner in Reynoldstown last year.
