Atlanta Streetcar project

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Uffda
County Board
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Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2005 9:52 pm
Location: Land o Lakes, FL

Atlanta Streetcar project

Post by Uffda »

I am down in Atlanta for a conference and saw a sign as I got off the MARTA from the airport. I saw the tracks already in the streets and some the stations but no streetcars. I asked a local last night when will the streetcars be running and he laughed. According to him everything is ready to go but no entity wants to take the responsibility of running it.

http://streetcar.atlantaga.gov" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Linkin5
County Board
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Re: Atlanta Streetcar project

Post by Linkin5 »

That is a city i would expect any streetcar/subway system to be non-feasible. So many people dependent on cars, so spread out, and their CBD is not defined to one area at all.
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Uffda
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Re: Atlanta Streetcar project

Post by Uffda »

What I have seen during the convention is the tracks in this part of the city seem to cover areas around the hotels. So wondering if meant to transport locals and tourists.

We took the MARTA rail In from the airport. Fast and easy.

http://www.itsmarta.com/rail-schedules-or-route.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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iamjacobm
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Re: Atlanta Streetcar project

Post by iamjacobm »

Spent the holiday weekend in ATL and while I didn't go downtown they do have some great neighborhoods being connected by a phenomenal trail system.

The Atlanta Beltline is a 22 mile loop around downtown Atlanta. It was an old rail line that is being converted. The entire loop isn't complete yet, but they have a good start and it has helped spur a ton of development. I rode about 4 miles up the trail and back and passed Inman Park which was a historic neighborhood with modern infill near the trail and a ton of restaurants, bars and neighborhood service retail.

Next we passed Ponce City Market which is a huge historic renovation of an old Sears Roebuck warehouse. Over 2 million SF total full of apartments, office space, retail and a food hall modeled after Chelsea Market(same developer). $180 million project, was really impressive.
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We turned around at Piedmont Park, which is a nice park in Midtown ATL, and headed back to a neighborhood closer to downtown where we were staying.

There were a ton of people using the trails and a lot of construction along the whole route. Cool how much was built to face the trail. Long term plans want to run a streetcar along the same route, but if that doesn't end up getting funding the city has an awesome urban asset now that is really impressive.
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