09/04/2026
"Light rail along the Atlanta Beltline loop could generate 4.2 million trips annually, according to a new estimate."
That's from a report on last night's Beltline transit-study meeting in the AJC by Sara Gregory (gift link in comments).
At the meeting, Beltline officials presented recommendations for three rail loops, totaling 22 miles, following a multiyear transit study.
- 1 loop along the BeltLine corridor
- 1 loop on the northern loop, using the downtown cross connection. So, Irwin through AUC and connecting up to Armour yards, and vice versa
- 1 loop on the southern loop, using the downtown cross connection. So, Irwin through AUC and connecting down to Pittsburgh Yards and vice versa
Trains will go each direction… bidirectional, clockwise
From the article:
"The ridership estimate is intentionally conservative, said Shaun Green, the Beltline’s principal engineer. It doesn’t account for future land use growth and densification, which are expected to increase along the Beltline similar to what happened on the Eastside after the first trail segment was built there."
Matching densification with rail-transit expansion, you say? Yes please. In fact, we could kickstart that effort today by allowing more density near all of our existing MARTA rail stations, through a zoning rewrite.
Building an Atlanta that's less dependent on car trips involves a lot of work and some big changes in the way we think about the city. It's easy to be discouraged by the slow progress on rail expansion, but it's also important to keep building that vision for a better future despite the setbacks.
Look at that rendering at the top of the AJC article, with greenery, density, ped/bike paths, and transit all intersecting. Every step we take with our policies, our developments, and our infrastructure spending should be guiding us closer to that vision. Accept nothing less.
