“In a letter to Mayor Kasim Reed and MARTA CEO Keith Parker on Monday, the Georgia Department of Transportation gave the city until June 14 to submit plans to address 60 outstanding problems outlined in the reports. If those plans are not sufficient, GDOT said, it will order the streetcar to shut down immediately.”
"McMurry said in the letter that, since the service started in December 2014, streetcar officials have failed to “provide timely, substantive and compliant responses to deficiencies identified by the department and (Federal Transportation Authority).”
The City of Atlanta on Tuesday submitted plans to fix a slew of problems with its troubled streetcar, but it’s unclear whether those plans will pass muster with state regulators who have threatened to shut it down.
Last month, Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Russell McMurry gave Atlanta and MARTA the Tuesday deadline to come up with their plans to address 60 problems outlined in recent audits.
Forty-one issues are dealt with in the response, and officials requested a four-week extension for tackling the remaining ones, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reed said. She said the city also asked GDOT to withdraw its threat to shut down the streetcar, at least unti
State gives Atlanta two weeks to address streetcar problems
State officials this week gave Atlanta extra time to submit plans to address problems with the city’s troubled streetcar, but they also renewed their threat to shut it down if those plans don’t pass muster.
In a letter dated Wednesday, the Georgia Department of Transportation gave the City of Atlanta and MARTA until June 28 to comply with its request for plans to address a slew of problems uncovered in recent audits.
from memory, allegations of not thorough enough training, lack of supervision, unreliable or nonexistant maintenancce schedules, inadequate schedules for inspections of rolling stock and physical plant.
Atlanta City Council has voted to call for a public vote in November to decide whether MARTA should collect an extra half-cent in sales taxes to pay for expansion projects.
The list of projects to be financed through the tax includes light rail and bus plans for Buckhead, including:
–A new Armour Yard rail station on the Gold and Red Lines. Armour Yard, at Piedmont Road and I-85, currently has a MARTA maintenance facility.
–BeltLine light rail. Buckhead’s segment of the BeltLine would run between Armour Yard and I-75 along Peachtree Creek, the Shepherd Center and Piedmont Hospital.
–Clifton Corridor light rail. This new line would run from Buckhead’s Lindbergh Center Gold/Red Line station to the Blue Line’s Avondale station through the Emory University area.
Arterial rapid transit buses on Peachtree Street and Peachtree Road. “Arterial rapid transit” means a bus that runs especially frequently and with priority at signals and in lines. The Peachtree route would run through Buckhead between the Five Points station and the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe Gold/Red Line station in Brookhaven. MARTA proposes pedestrian improvements on that corridor as well.
–Bus rapid transit on Northside Drive. “Bus rapid transit” means the bus would travel mostly in a dedicated lane. The Northside route would run between southwest Atlanta and I-75 on the Buckhead border.
–A light rail plan to link BeltLine light rail to the new Armour Yard station, the streetcar and other intown transit facilities.
–Improved signage, pedestrian access and other amenities at all existing rail stations; additional cars on r
The Georgia Department of Transportation has backed away from its threat to shut down Atlanta’s trouble streetcar.
In a letter to the city Tuesday, GDOT Commissioner Russell McMurry said the agency will continue reviewing Atlanta’s plans to fix dozens of problems outlined in recent audits. But he said GDOT is satisfied with the city’s recent progress after months of delay.
MARTA expansion backers promise transparency, public discussions
By Chris Bowling - The Atlanta Journal-Constitutio
Posted: 5:19 p.m. Friday, July 1, 2016
City officials, transit activists and BeltLine backers in Midtown Thursday night said they can all agree on one thing—they can’t make the same mistakes as last time.
In 2012 the metro area voted no on a new regional sales tax that would have provided $7.2 billion over 10 years to address transportation needs from roads to transit.
On Nov. 8 citizens of Atlanta will vote again on transit expansion. At a public discussion held by pro-transit group the MARTA Army, City Councilman Kwanza Hall said, officials still use 2012 as a lesson.
“There’s a lot to be learned,” Hall said. “And of course it was bigger than the city of Atlanta, and the city did pass, barely. But I think we’re in a different place in the conversation and different in a lot of ways than we were back then.”