BeltLine Rail Now

04/18/2026

Join us again next Saturday April 25th in Inman Park for THE event of the spring festival season The Inman Park Festival. We need your presence in the parade and at our booth to make it clearer than ever that this city wants Beltline rail- and now! Bring yourself your friends and your family and have a great time as we march along the route of Atlanta’s first streetcar on an Atlanta spring day. And if you need a T shirt to wear we got you covered. Indicate that in your registration.

As in years past we have a table at the Little Five Points Community Center BOTH Saturday and Sunday. Consider volunteering for a shift and helping spread the word.

RSVP for both events is in our linktree in our profile.

We’ll be joined by District 2 Atlanta City Councilperson Kelsea Bond who launched their campaign marching in the parade with us last year. Inman Park is entirely inside D2 and Kelsea won on a campaign that had their support for Beltline rail as an anchor. They won with 64% of the vote in a crowded field. Yes, Inman Park wants Beltline rail and it’s time to tell Mayor Dickens, MARTA, and Atlanta Beltline Inc that when it comes to Beltline Rail the time is now and it’s Both-And! We need ALL 22 MILES of it!

Or at the link https://beltlinerailnow.com/upcoming-events/2026/4/25/inman-park-festival-parade

04/16/2026

Want to talk Beltline rail in a social setting and celebrate - or commiserate- about the opening of the SE Trail with no timetable for rail? Want to meet like-minded folks for an informal happy hour with our shared interest in light rail on all 22 miles of the Beltline? Join us TONIGHT at Estoria 6:30-9:00PM! Check out the linktree in our profile or https://beltlinerailnow.com/upcoming-events/2026/4/16/brn-estoria-social!

For those coming to our Ribbon Cutting Show of Strength before, Estoria is a 25-minute walk or 10-minute bike ride up Bill Kennedy Way, the Beltline and Wylie St.

🚊🍻🚵🎭

04/14/2026

This Thursday April 16th, a major Beltline milestone will be reached. But NOT for everyone.

The Eastside trail and Southside trail will be connected. And this is something to celebrate. For cyclists pedestrians and scooter riders, this means more contiguous Beltline and connection of the city's Southside to its Eastside by trail.

But the true promise of and reason for the Beltline, 22 miles of light rail parallel to the trail and connecting 45 Atlanta neighborhoods, 20 APS schools, 3 of the City's largest parks, 5 MARTA stations, and the largest opportunity zone for jobs in the city, languishes no closer to construction than it was two years ago when MARTA started final design of the first segment. And that's after collecting almost 800 million dollars of tax money to build it and other projects in More MARTA.

Join us Thursday in your BRN T-shirts (available at signup) and carrying signs as we remind our leaders that we expect them to deliver. We've got the trail, now BUILD THE RAIL!

See the signup in our linktree or at beltlinerailnow.com/upcoming-events. 🚊

03/24/2026

Woohoo! Last night BRN reached 6,000 followers on Instagram. We also surpassed 3,000 last month on Facebook. Thank you for being one of them! Your advocacy and efforts are vital to keeping the promise of rail along all 22 miles of the Beltline on track as we hold elected and appointed officials to account. Even as it appears that leaders are failing in their charge from voters to build Beltline rail now, interest in our mission is growing fast. A whole new generation of Atlantans "gets it" when it comes to Beltline rail.

We are grateful for your support! Visit us at beltlinerailnow.com for more and to sign up for our newsletter and get involved. 🚊

03/20/2026

Atlanta Beltline's (ABI) recent touting of the Beltline as the world's longest linear arboretum feels like a way for it to change the topic.

The story-behind-the-headline is that the Beltline is the largest transit project in the U.S. with no trains on it more than 20 years after ABI began building it.

Everyone is for trees. And indeed Atlanta, the "city in the forest," has plenty of them. And we’re all for more on the Beltline too; they just shouldn't be planted in the 22-mile greenway set aside for light rail transit.

These new trees shouldn’t be an excuse for not moving forward with light rail, the "people's project,” as CEO Clyde Higgs reminds us it's called in his legendary quarterly robocalls. Beltline rail was the most popular part of the More MARTA referendum passed overwhelmingly by Atlantans in 2016.

Let's stop changing the subject. Rubber-wheeled autonomous shuttles, which require a road built next to the recreational trail, aren't the answer.

Transit, trees, and the recreational trail can all coexist harmoniously on the Beltline; indeed that's the vision. The longer we wait to move forward with transit on the Beltline, the less likely it will happen.

Let's stop building pretexts for not moving forward with Beltline transit; the “people” want both trees and trams.

See ABI's announcement at https://beltline.org/press-release/atlanta-beltline-arboretum-becomes-the-world-s-longest-linear-arboretum/ 🚊

03/13/2026

Let's Talk Transit is off and running for 2026!

Want to talk with other transit fans, experts, and officials about what's next for transit in Atlanta? Let's Talk Transit is a safe, fun, and informal way to meet others and have a good time celebrating the things we have in common- our love of transit and the future of it in the ATL.

Join us on the Beltline SW on March 26th, 6:30-8:30 at Boxcar at Lee & White. Visit https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=701Po00001aeHpiIAE for more details and to RSVP. 🚊

03/08/2026

The last two MARTA stations opened in 2000. Meanwhile, Seattle added to a robust bus network, building out a city and regional light rail system over the past two decades, spurred by a 3.9 billion transit measure passed in 1996.

"Atlanta basically had this one-time investment, and there have been a couple of extensions, but other than that, it's been stuck with heavy rail that has just been that one system since," said Keri Watkins, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California at Davis. Watkins worked at Georgia Tech for a decade.

What can be learned from Seattle, as MARTA continues to struggle delivering projects, expanding the system and, now, is in search of new leadership.

03/05/2026

ABI's First Quartlery Update Meeting for The Atlanta Beltline aka "the people's project" is TONIGHT. MARTA is the guest presenter so expect updates of where things stand regarding transit on and near the Beltline. Not happy with the way MARTA and ABI are fumbling the transit football? It's a Zoom meeting so registration is required. There will be a Q & A. It's also on Facebook Live but you can't ask questions there.

Register in the link in the linktree in our bio. Or go to https://beltline.org/events/699c71192aeb7d9fa247c511/

03/05/2026

Atlanta Beltline Inc. has hired a new Vice President of Transit Innovation, who hails from a paved mobility background. In doing so, the City of Atlanta has signaled what's in store for the Beltline: autonomous “pods.”

ABI has been referring to Beltline transit as light rail. But recently it dropped those references from its website and replaced “light rail" with “transit.”

The future of Beltline transit, as Mayor Dickens sees it, is autonomous vehicles. We know this: the new VP of Transit Innovation, Joe Iacobucci, was hired last fall from TYLin International. TYLIN is a global engineering and consulting firm regarded as a go-to for paved-mobility solutions, including autonomous shuttles. See the link in our profile for the Saporta Report story and more details.

While at TYLin, Iacobucci worked on a series of road-based projects, including the report ABI solicited from TYLin about transit, recommending autonomous shuttles as the preferred mode of transit for the Beltline.

Iacobucci’s hiring coincides with the ABI and City rollout out of a pilot, on-demand mini-bus shuttle system designed to connect Atlanta University Center, the West End MARTA station and the Lee & White complex at the Beltline. This mini-bus rollout, designed to be up and running for the World Cup in June, means one thing: Mayor Dickens, with ABI playing front man, is all in on paved mobility as Beltline transit.

Yep, the Mayor of Atlanta thinks it’s a good idea to abandon light rail in the core of the city, throw away 22-miles of dedicated right of way greenway, years of planning and more than $10 million, for what transit experts refer to as gadgetbahn. Translation: a low capacity, pavement-based gimmick that’s the opposite of what the Beltline needs – a mass transit solution.

Meanwhile, there's no progress on Southside Beltline rail, putting the start point of the entire project in jeopardy. 🚊

See the link in our bio for the Saporta Report story.

02/27/2026

Who's on first? ABI's Clyde Higgs says Beltline transit hasn't moved forward because the MARTA Board hasn't had a vote to approve it. Meanwhile, MARTA CEO Jonathan Hunt says MARTA is waiting on the City of Atlanta to send it a re-prioritization plan.

All the while, the city sits on its hands. A little less than a year after Mayor Andre Dickens came off Eastside Beltline light rail, electing to start light rail on the Southside section of the Beltline, nothing has happened. During a city council transportation committee meeting this week, Hunt said MARTA still hasn't received a transit re-prioritization list from the city.

Let's tally this. ABI is waiting on the MARTA board while MARTA, the transportation agency, waits on the city.

Wasn't the rationale behind Mayor Dickens' decision to move the light rail starting point from the Eastside trail to the Southside to get things moving and bring equity to an under served part of town? Apparently moving with rapidity is not a priority. To date, no design or engineering work has started on the Southside Beltline, the necessary first step to make way for light rail. And as we learned at this week's city council transportation meeting, the city hasn't even sent a transit re-prioritization list to MARTA, which would put Southside Beltline light rail planning in motion. This is something the city promised MARTA in December it would have to them in February. We're almost in March.

In recent weeks, Atlanta City Council members have expressed dissatisfaction at being in the dark on the decision to stop work on the Eastside Beltline light rail project.

02/23/2026

In Sunday's AJC, BRN Chair Matthew Rao calls on Mayor Dickens, MARTA, and ABI. They must fulfill not only the will of the voters and their own visions for transit delivery, affordability, and equity this decade. Rao argues that walking away from Beltline rail by nixing final design and construction of Streetcar East harms everyone. And it assures no new rail service this decade--and well into the next. See our linktree in our profile for the full op-Ed.

“(Streetcar East) can be in service in three years. No other rail project in More MARTA is even close. It will take seven to 10 years from where we are now for any other segments of Beltline rail to be completed. The proposed infill stations will take even longer. What message does it send if major decisions (made by voters) can be reversed by the latest mayor after years and millions spent?"

"And what of equity? A city that cares about affordability cannot be one where car ownership is mandatory to access employment and all the city offers. Transit is economic infrastructure. Without it, inequality widens. Withholding direct transit access now to the city’s biggest opportunity zone is the most inequitable decision MARTA and the mayor could make.” -Matthew Rao for the AJC 02/22/26 🚊

02/21/2026

Atlantans have been betrayed by city leadership over Beltline Rail. The public trust has been broken.

Atlanta voters deserved to know that a MARTA committee nixed Eastside Beltline rail when the decision took place, not months later in an AJC story.