ATLANTA — Metro Atlanta is about to see its first attempt to build a new commuter train line since MARTA trains began rolling in 1979, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
The Atlanta Regional Commission has earmarked more than $281 million to build a downtown Atlanta train and bus hub and a rail line that would run to Griffin. The money is in ARC’s proposed Transportation Improvement Program, a 3-year plan that guides transportation construction in metro Atlanta. The plan is up for final approval next month.
If things go well, trains could leave the station by 2006, said Clayton County Commissioner Carl Rhodenizer, who serves on both state agencies responsible for getting commuting and comprehensive passenger rail running in Georgia.
New commuter lines have been planned in Atlanta for more than a decade.
Before Georgia can spend the money, however, it must settle a couple of troublesome issues:
— It must survive a legal challenge to Gov. Roy Barnes’ methods of paying for transit projects with state bond money.
— It doesn’t own the tracks it wants to run commuter rail on, and negotiations to buy the tracks have run into problems.
The money would provide $70.5 million for the Atlanta transit hub and $210.8 million for the rail line. The line could be extended to Macon.
More than $200 million is expected to come from the state bonds, which would be repaid with yearly federal returns of gas taxes. The State Road and Tollway Authority was set up in part to authorize and sell the bonds.
A citizens group, the Northern Arc Task Force, sued the state, saying the arrangement was unconstitutional and that it concentrated multibillion-dollar decisions in the hands of a few officials.
A judge ruled in favor of the state this month, but the task force said it intends to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“I’m holding my hopes out that there will be no substantial problem with the bond issue,” Rhodenizer said.
Walter “Sonny” Deriso Jr., a Columbus banker and the chairman of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, is negotiating with Norfolk Southern for the possible sale of one of its tracks to Macon. The two sides failed to reach an agreement on the price last year, but Deriso said the negotiations are continuing.
Sharon Gay, GRTA’s vice chairman, said, “That is the critical piece that has to get put in place. But my expectation is that we will move ahead with a master plan and design” of Atlanta’s new downtown rail station and commuter terminal.
State planning agencies are gearing up to move ahead with studies and preliminary engineering.
“We don’t want to wait for them to say, ‘Here’s the money. What have you done to get ready?’ And we say, ‘We didn’t have any money, so we didn’t do anything,’ ” Rhodenizer said.
The terminal will be built in an area known as the Gulch, now occupied by rail lines and parking lots between Philips Arena and Marta’s Five Points station. It will be Atlanta’s major transit crossroads, connecting commuter and passenger trains to MARTA and express bus services to the suburbs.
Paul Mullins, the state Department of Transportation director of planning and programming, said the DOT is conducting land title investigations into Gulch property.
“We anticipate completing that this month,” Mullins said.
After the title investigations are complete, negotiations can begin with landowners. The state has $17 million to buy the land.