— Matthew Rao, Chair, BeltLine Rail Now

More MARTA is failing. It is dying a death by a thousand cuts, getting progressively smaller and less meaningful than the transit expansion program 71% of voters backed in 2016. Trains become rapid buses, rapid buses become regular buses, and enhancements to local buses become nothing at all. 2025 becomes 2030, then 2035, then 2045, then never. It did not and does not have to be that way. Recent revelations give insight into MARTA’s budgetary problems and the extent of their impact on the program. They show that it is highly unlikely that even half of the More MARTA transit expansion can be built with MARTA’s current financial model. Some of the projects in Tier I are among the ones in jeopardy. There is time to change course and build all 17 More MARTA projects, plus the four new infill MARTA stations the mayor proposed earlier this year. This will only happen if Mayor Dickens, MARTA and ABI quickly increase funding from both existing and new sources, primarily the federal programs administered by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). 

It’s time for radical changes in the funding formulas for all More MARTA transit expansion projects. MARTA should immediately federalize funding for projects not already under construction, seeking the largest possible federal grants, regardless of additional delays. Why is MARTA now short of funding?

On August 19th, Mayor Andre Dickens announced the results of the More MARTA audit by press release. The audit concludes that MARTA, now in year 7 of collecting a half-penny sales tax which is the result of the very popular 2016 More MARTA referendum, overcharged the More MARTA program by up to $70 million for local bus service improvements. The Atlanta City Council requested this audit in 2023 after MARTA revealed it has spent more than half of every dollar on bus service expansion and other operations. The audit shows that by 2023, these enhancements had been withdrawn, leaving MARTA with no more bus service than when the program began in 2017. This was not how it was supposed to be.

In the fall of 2018, MARTA presented a project list to then-Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the MARTA Board of Directors approved a More MARTA Atlanta program allocating the anticipated $2.7 billion in revenue over 40 years: 10% to local bus & existing streetcar operations, 10% to passenger facilities, and 80% to expansion projects. 

The decision to spend more than half the More MARTA tax revenue on operations of existing services flies in the face of what then-CEO Jeffrey Parker wrote to Mayor Bottoms. In that 2018 letter, Parker explicitly outlined allocations for the anticipated $2.7 billion in revenue over 40 years: 10% to local bus & existing streetcar operations, 10% to passenger facilities, and 80% to expansion projects. These included 5 bus rapid transit (BRT) and 6 light rail (LRT) projects, with 5 of them comprising more than 16 miles of BeltLine rail. It was discovered in 2022 that not only was the spending not in line with Parker’s commitment, but also that this disproportionate allocation of dollars continues. MARTA’s Financial Model reveals the intent to continue using 45% of Atlanta’s half penny to fund current systems operations and/or agency-wide reserves - a model that could drain Atlanta’s expansion program of over $1 billion dollars. 

This misspending is WHY there is a Tier I and Tier II in More MARTA. MARTA announced in April 2023 that half of the “most ambitious transit expansion program in Atlanta history” would have to wait until at least 2035 or 2040 to begin. Due to its financial shortfall, MARTA demoted 9 projects, including most of the BeltLine rail segments and 2 BRT lines. It also downscaled 2 rail lines to BRT at Campbellton Rd. and to Emory University. Projecting the current state forward, there will not be  enough money to build the More MARTA Tier II projects at all. Some Tier I projects may not be completed either. It will take time to get to the bottom of the what, who, when and why. It’s important that we know the answers and that accountability, transparency, and change take place at MARTA.

As the MARTA audit process unfolds, only 1 expansion project, Summerhill BRT, is under construction, and the call to pause forward advances on the rest and re-evaluate everything has emerged in the auditors’ recommendations. Pausing projects that are already underway only makes them more expensive to deliver, and we’ve already waited 7 years to get started with the first rail project, Streetcar East Extension (SCE), now in final design. 

We can still save More MARTA as a significant transit expansion program. Only by moving forward now can we capture the federal funding in the Biden Infrastructure Act, from which tens of billions has been awarded to many other American cities but almost none to Atlanta. And only by acting now can MARTA realistically plan all 17 projects in Tier I and Tier II before the waning years of the program in the 2050s. It is essential to grow the federal share of dollars invested in these projects - and to do so now.

First and foremost, that means seeking federal (FTA) funding for the $230 million SCE, which includes the first 1.4 miles of BeltLine rail. While it made sense seven years ago to fund the relatively small streetcar extension entirely with local funding, it is no longer logical to do so. Project costs are more than double the original estimate, primarily because MARTA has waited so long. And everyone expects costs to go higher, since the budget has not been re-estimated in more than two years, and important project values like grass tracks, fixes to the existing downtown streetcar, and a new fleet of streetcars necessary for the extended route were not included in that estimate. These are just the kinds of things that federal grants are designed to pay for, and it’s time to apply for as many of them as possible. 

The money is out there. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg announced the Biden Infrastructure Act (IIJA) here in Atlanta in May 2021, naming BeltLine rail as the type of project it is intended to fund. The IIJA provided $23 billion over five years for the Federal Transit Administration to award through its flagship Capital Investment Grants, including New Starts and Small Starts. Over $3.6 billion has been awarded since 2022 to Light Rail projects in Boston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Maryland, Minneapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, Sacramento and Seattle. Another $10 billion has been announced for heavy rail projects in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and the San Francisco Bay area.

So what should happen now? It’s time for MARTA to do the following: 

• Immediately adopt a new financial model beginning in its FY2026 budget that allocates at least 80% of More MARTA tax dollars into actual transit expansion (the BRT and LRT projects) instead of the 50%-55% it has been allocated so far. By funding the expansion program more heavily, MARTA can build up the City of Atlanta “dedicated reserve” for matching grant applications ahead of bringing projects to shovel-ready status. That reserve will also serve as the funding for the operations of the expansion projects when they are completed and enter service.

• Include funding in its FY2026 budget for the study and preliminary design of all the BRT and LRT projects, as well as the 4 new infill heavy rail stations proposed by Mayor Dickens in his March 27th State of the City address. Those stations would connect to BeltLine rail and to other transit lines such as Campbellton Rd. BRT, Summerhill BRT, North Avenue BRT, and Emory Clifton BRT. MARTA should apply USDOT RAISE grants for these studies. The awarding of grant money for study and design is an important change in the Biden administration FTA policy in programs like RAISE, and can jump-start the timeline to final project development, at which time funding from the bigger FTA Small Starts and New Starts programs can be sought.

• Federalize the Streetcar East Extension, building on the Tier II EIS and NEPA studies that MARTA has already undertaken, and reducing the local funding requirement. Assuming a 50% grant for the SCE, MARTA can use the difference to leverage the local funding in order to create a phase II and III for it, increasing the size and caliber of the project. That’s more bang for the same buck and a win for everyone. 

• Change the funding mix for all other transit expansion projects in More MARTA to include a substantially larger federal share. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law increased the allowable federal share of FTA Capital Investment Grants up to 60% of project construction costs, but local funding commitments still help make a project more competitive. MARTA should seek a minimum 40% federal share for the Streetcar East Extension.

• Be prepared to take the momentum from the BeltLine Transit Study that ABI now has underway and that is expected to conclude next year, and move swiftly into New Starts project development for a combination of light rail on the Beltline south of I-20 with a seamless connection to an infill MARTA rail station at Murphy Crossing, while also advancing further phases of transit on the Eastside beyond Ponce City Market to Piedmont Park, Ansley Mall and Armour, the infill station on the north side of the city. 

It is also time for Atlanta Beltline, Inc. to allocate a portion of the remaining Tax Allocation District (TAD) funds directly to building transit, one of the four purposes of the TAD. In any holistic conversation about how to fund BeltLine rail, ABI’s role should not be ignored. Making sure that the transit on the BeltLine is beautiful by using TAD dollars to help fund it is something that CEO Clyde Higgs could legitimately ask his board to support. The 2005 BeltLine Redevelopment Plan expected a total TAD revenue of $1.7 billion, providing $500 million for local matches to leverage federal transit grants. Grant officers give bonus mobility points for car-free households, and to projects in areas where there is a concentration of units that are permanently affordable for households at or below 60% AMI (area median income). 

There is a lot to settle between City Hall and MARTA, including a possible renegotiation of the contract (the Intergovernmental Agreement, or IGA) that governs the More MARTA program. This lengthy process won’t be easy, and while it is a step in the right direction, it should not be a reason to pause on projects that have passed muster, have a funding source, and are in progress. This includes Summerhill BRT, Streetcar East Extension, and Campbellton Rd. BRT. 

One thing is clear: If we wait for all those details from the audit to emerge, we will face more delays and greater costs for transit expansion. We have a congressional delegation in Washington, DC ready now to advocate on Atlanta’s behalf. Atlanta cannot afford to lose the opportunity to secure some of the remaining federal dollars in the Build Back Better Act (IIJA). There are still around $6 billion left to award. Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA, District 5) recently named our delegation in Washington the WOW factor: Warnock, Ossoff, and Williams. “I’ll get you the money…that’s where we come in…” Williams recently told Rose Scott on WABE’s A Closer Look. The WOW factor can be powerful advocates for bringing infrastructure transit dollars back to Atlanta, but our Mayor and MARTA leadership must take the first steps to ask for that money. 

It’s time to put the ‘More” back in More MARTA. We’ve lost time, money, and confidence in our transit agency, that is true, but the time is right and the ingredients and advocates are there to get back on track and make progress toward the transit expansion program we have all been waiting for. We have a window of opportunity now. That window won’t stay open much longer. The answer is to move forward.