A Constant Restart?
The Plan and The Pivot
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2017 | During a MARTA trip to Los Angeles, then-City Council Transportation Committee Chair Andre Dickens rode light rail. MARTA General Manager Jeff Parker had taken a group of elected Atlanta elected officials on the trip in an effort to persuade them to drop Beltline rail in favor of bus rapid transit (BRT). After riding light rail, Dickens concluded and publicly stated that light rail is what we need on the Beltline, consistent with the city’s existing plans. |
| 2018 | Atlanta Beltline Inc convenes a 50-person task force that re-affirmed 2 prior studies’ conclusions that light rail-rail streetcar is the preferred transit mode for Beltline transit and the need to build it was urgent. |
| 2021 | Dickens runs for Mayor. He campaigns as Atlanta’s first “Transportation Mayor”, citing Beltline rail as a project he would push MARTA to advance if elected. |
| 2021-12-01 | Dickens wins the election in a runoff. |
| 2021-12-01 | Mayor-elect Dickens addresses Beltline Rail Now and reaffirms his commitment to Beltline rail. |
| 2022-01-01 | In his inaugural address, Mayor Dickens specifically commits to opening Beltline rail during his term and completing it by 2030. |
| 2022-06-01 | Consultants Kimley-Horn complete the 30% design for Streetcar East. |
| 2023-01-01 | Behind the scenes, the Mayor’s representatives on the Program Governance Committee (PGC) advance the Streetcar East Extension, which includes the first 1.4 miles of Beltline Rail, as a top priority. |
| 2023-02-01 | The PGC votes to advance a recommendation to enter final design and build the Streetcar East Extension to the MARTA Board. |
| 2023-04-01 | With the support of the Dickens administration, MARTA identifies 8 Tier 1 and 9 Tier II project lists for More MARTA, with the Streetcar East Extension being in Tier I. |
| 2023-07-01 | The MARTA Board votes unanimously to advance the Streetcar East Extension to final design and awards HDR $11.5 million to get the project ready to build. |
| 2023-08-01 | A group of influential Atlanta Eastside residents, developers, and restaurateurs meet with Mayor Dickens, urging him to backtrack on the Streetcar East Extension. |
| 2023-09-01 | At the annual State of The Beltline Breakfast, Atlanta Beltline Inc. CEO Clyde Higgs and Mayor Dickens are visibly out of sync. Higgs unveils plans to move forward with light rail running on grass tracks, illustrated with super-sized renderings. Yet, in his keynote address, Mayor Dickens says a variety of options for Beltline transit will be investigated. He does not name advancing light rail on the Beltline two months earlier as a leadership victory or mention the project’s advancement toward implementation as imminent. |
| 2023-10-01 | Better Atlanta Transit (BAT) officially forms. Founded by Mike Greene of Portman Holdings and others who met with the Mayor in August, the organization’s chief objective is to defeat Beltline rail on the Eastside Trail. |
| 2024-01-01 | HDR receives its contract from MARTA and begins work on the Streetcar East Extension’s final design. |
| 2024-03-01 | HDR begins stakeholder engagement on the project. |
| 2024-03-01 | At a public meeting at the Inman Park Trolley Barn, Better Atlanta Transit assembles a panel that includes former Mayor Shirley Franklin, a longtime mentor to Mayor Dickens. The panel casts doubts on the project’s selected mode, light rail streetcar, and argues that the mayor should pause the project while additional studies are conducted. Franklin said that as Mayor, she loved long-term projects because if they eventually happened, she would get credit. But, if they eventually disappear and never happen, she would not be blamed. This was what they wanted the Mayor to know. |
| 2025-01-01 | The Mayor’s team at Atlanta Beltline Inc., led by Clyde Higgs, engages in private discussions and solicits a report about autonomous vehicles as the locally preferred alternative for the Beltline. |
| 2025-02-01 | Mayor Dickens publicly reaffirms his commitment to Beltline rail. |
| 2025-03-01 | A draft report produced by TYLin recommends scrapping light rail in favor of future technologies, such as 60-passenger autonomous buses on a new 2-lane road on The Beltline. |
| 2025-03-01 | At a MARTA Board meeting, Mayor Dickens publicly withdraws his support for Beltline rail’s first segment, Streetcar East. He says MARTA should reprioritize the More MARTA program yet again (for the fourth time) and start Beltline rail on the Southside, where no design work has been done and passenger service would be at least 7-10 years away. |
| 2025-05-01 | Atlanta Beltline Inc. CEO Clyde Higgs brought a motion before the PGC to end work on light rail along the Eastside Trail, the same project that the committee had unanimously advanced less than two years prior. The vote is 7-1. All three of the Mayor’s representatives, along with Higgs, who as ABI’s CEO ultimately works for the Mayor, vote to break the contract with HDR and end its work. |
| On map | Date | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nov 2016 | More MARTA referendum (1/2 penny sales tax) for transit. |
| 2 | Dec 2021 | Dickens elected as Mayor. |
| 3 | Jan 2022 | Mayor Dickens' inaugural address specifically pledged Beltline rail would open during his term and reach completion by 2030. |
| 4 | June 2022 | Consultants Kimley-Horn completed the 30% design for SCE (Streetcar East). |
| 5 | July 2023 | MARTA's Board unanimously advanced the SCE to final design, awarding HDR (HDR Engineering Inc) $11.5 million to prepare the project's construction. |
| 6 | Aug 2023 | A group of influential Atlanta Eastsiders, developers, and restaurateurs meet with Mayor Dickens, urging him to backtrack on SCE. |
| 7 | Sept 2023 | At the State of the Beltline Breakfast, ABI CEO Clyde Higgs and Mayor Dickens appeared to be at odds. Higgs presented light rail plans featuring large-scale imagery, but the Mayor's keynote address suggested investigating alternative transit options instead. Notably, Dickens did not credit light rail as a personal achievement or a project ready for implementation. |
| 8 | Jan 2024 | In his State of the City address, Dickens urges the construction of MARTA infill station on the Beltline, leaving rail out of his content. |
| 9 | Feb 2024 | HDR receives its contract from MARTA and begins work on the SCE final design. |
| 10 | Feb 2025 | The Mayor publicly reaffirms his commitment to Beltline rail. |
| 11 | Mar 2025 | At a MARTA meeting, the Mayor publicly withdrew support for Streetcar East, the Beltline's first rail segment. He urged a fourth re-prioritization of the More MARTA program to start on the Southside—an area lacking design work, with service at least 7–10 years away. |
| 12 | Jan 2026 | Our current state of affairs. |
For more details, here’s a full timeline on the Mayor’s reversal:
2025 Candidate Scorecard
Where Do Atlanta’s Candidates Stand on Beltline Rail?
Beltline Rail Now is proud to release our 2025 Candidate Survey and Scorecard, highlighting where candidates for Atlanta’s next Mayor, City Council President, and City Council stand on advancing rail transit along the full 22-mile Atlanta Beltline.
Transit remains one of Atlanta voters’ top priorities. With Election Day on November 4 (early voting October 14–31), we want to ensure voters have clear, transparent information to make informed choices. Of the 44 candidates invited, 22 responded to our survey, which asked about their priorities for Beltline rail, the city’s partnership with MARTA, and broader transit goals. Each response was scored by our panel of BRN board members and volunteers using a rubric based on our pro-transit values.
Candidates scoring 90 points or higher were recognized as Pro-Transit, and those scoring 80–89 points as Transit-Supportive.
Transit Supportive Candidates
Charles Bourgeois | District 9 | 89 points
Helmut “Love” Domagalski | Mayor | 88 points
Jamie Christy | District 7 | 87 points
Jason Dozier | District 4 | 87 points
Liliana Bhaktiari | District 5 | 85 points
Courtney Smith | District 2 | 83 points
Stephanie Flowers | District 12 | 83 points
Juan Mendoza | District 1 At-Large | 81 points
2024 Atlanta City Council Post 3 At-Large Candidate Scorecard
As early voting continues, voters will decide which of five candidates to elect to Atlanta City Council Post 3 At-Large. We wanted to know what our candidates would do to ensure completion of Beltline rail if elected.
Based on their written responses to our Candidate Survey, we cannot endorse a candidate. No one scored better than 73 out of 105 possible points, and in our view, the candidates demonstrated a lack of understanding of the project's current status or about what they'd do to advance Streetcar East and Beltline rail.
This important seat is one of 3 at-large seats that ALL Atlanta voters fill. The winner can become part of the emerging coalition of Beltline rail supporters, including Council President Doug Shipman and Councilmembers Bakhtiari, Dozier, and Farokhi, representing districts 5, 4, and 2 respectively.
Please attend these candidates' events and press them for answers on Beltline rail, letting them know why it matters to you. If you have a Beltline Rail Now T-shirt, wear one; if you don't, buy one here. And when you vote, carefully consider the candidates’ answers. We need a veto-proof majority to ensure that Atlanta moves forward.
NPU Petition Report
After an 11-month effort to engage the voice of 16 Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs), Beltline Rail Now publishes results that include the renewed support of 12 of them for BeltLine rail and letters from 9 that show why they still believe that the project is urgent- more now than ever.
After an 11-month effort to engage the voice of 16 Atlanta Neighborhood Planning Units (NPUs), Beltline Rail Now publishes results that include the renewed support of 12 of them for BeltLine rail and letters from 9 that show why they still believe that the project is urgent- more now than ever.
IDOM Report for MARTA
In 2022 MARTA engaged internationally respected consultants IDOM for recommendations on best practices for design of the BeltLine rail corridor.
Grass tracks, smaller vehicles, attractive street and BeltLine landscapes are just a part of what MARTA and ABI can do to create a world-class project.
In 2022 MARTA engaged internationally respected consultants IDOM for recommendations on best practices for design of the BeltLine rail corridor.
Grass tracks, smaller vehicles, attractive street and BeltLine landscapes are just a part of what MARTA and ABI can do to create a world-class project.
ABI Transit Task Force Final Report
The Atlanta BeltLine Transit Task Force convened in June 2018, representing a cross-section of stakeholders and community leaders. As a result of the work of the Task Force, ABI reaffirmed that streetcar should remain the preferred technology for transit on the Atlanta BeltLine.
The Atlanta BeltLine Transit Task Force convened in June 2018, representing a cross-section of stakeholders and community leaders. As a result of the work of the Task Force, ABI reaffirmed that streetcar should remain the preferred technology for transit on the Atlanta BeltLine.
White Paper: Blueprint for Transit Funding
BeltLine Rail Now’s comprehensive funding strategy for the transit component of the Atlanta BeltLine project, provided the MARTA, City Council and the public with the intent to accelerate construction.
White Paper: Funding Summary
A 2-pg summary of BRN’s white paper: “Blueprint for Transit Funding”.
White Paper: Executive Summary
A 2-pg summary of BRN’s white paper :‘A Blueprint for Transit Funding’
THE LINK BETWEEN TRANSIT & AFFORDABILITY
A 2-pg summary that establishes the link between mobility and housing affordability. Produced by BeltLine Rail Now.
