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Piedmont Hospital, Piedmont
Park, Historic Fourth Ward
Park, Boulevard Crossing Park,
Murphy Crossing, Enota Park
and Maddox Park.
Crosstown Inner Loop:
This one-way line would follow
the Central Loop and create
a bi-directional connector
line to connect the east and
west BeltLine along Fair
Street, Martin Luther King
Jr. Boulevard, Luckie Street,
Auburn Avenue, Edgewood
Avenue and Irwin Street.
Key stops: Atlanta University
Center, Centennial Olympic
Park, Downtown, Georgia State
University and the King Center.
Special
The Crosstown Peachtree Line would connect Buckhead with
Fort McPherson (the future home of Tyler Perry Studios) trav
eling mostly down Peachtree Street and Peachtree Road.
Crosstown Outer Loop:
Another one-way line following
the central loop, but there
would be a bi-directional
connector line to connect
the northwest and southeast
portions of the BeltLine along
Northside Drive, Luckie
Street, Capitol Avenue and
Hank Aaron Drive. Key stops:
Atlantic Station, Georgia Tech,
Centennial Park, Downtown,
Georgia State and Turner Field.
This isn’t the first time a streetcar
route between Buckhead and south
Atlanta has been on the table. When the
idea of resurrecting streetcars in Atlanta
began in earnest back in 2003 and before
the great recession struck in 2008, there
were meetings, debates and renderings of
a streetcar gliding down Peachtree.
The BeltLine’s senior transportation
project manager Marcus Arnold told the
Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods at
its May 14 meeting that construction of
the Crosstown Peachtree Line, as well as
other lines, would “come down to available
funding and interest from the community
in getting that line in.”
Beth McMillan, the BeltLine’s director
of community planning, told the BCN
meeting that the business community is
very interested in seeing a streetcar on
Peachtree because of the development
impact that streetcars have had in other
cities, like Portland, where they have been
constructed.
The Atlanta BeltLine project jump-
started the streetcar discussion again
and there has always been a plan to
incorporate transit around the 22-mile
loop of what is now walking/biking trails
encircling the city.
The expanded Atlanta Streetcar plan
creates a system that hasn’t been seen in
the city since 1949 when the city pulled
up the tracks and decided buses and
automobiles were the future.
While costs haven’t been finalized,
officials said they would be seeking
federal funding. The current streetcar
project received $47 million in federal
grants in 2010. Nathan Soldat, the
BeltLine’s engagement advocate, told the
BCN that 16 of the proposed 50 miles of
streetcar lines are currently undergoing
environmental assessment, a first step
toward receiving federal funding.
The success of the
Downtown streetcar route is
still uncertain. After months
of delays, it finally opened to
riders on Dec. 30. Costs to
operate the loop have increased
from $3.2 million a year to
more than $4.8 million, and
the city decided to make riding
the streetcar free for the rest
of the year as it works out fare
integration with MARTA.
To all the maps visit www.
beltline.org/ ESI
The Crosstown Inner Loop would
feature a bi-directional line con
necting the east and west portions
of the BeltLine with streetcars
running along Edgewood Avenue,
Irwin Street and on to Martin
Luther King Jr. Boulevard with key
stops Georgia State University,
Centennial Park and Atlanta
University Center.
Special
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June 2015 | INtOWIl 5