This week Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announced that $100 million in bonds dedicated during the 2018 legislative session to mass transit would be spent on a series of four new bus-only interchanges along a 16-mile stretch along SR 400 as part of the planned Express Lanes Project.
Already well underway though is another major transportation project – the Clifton Corridor Transit Initiative. The plan will include light rail to connect existing MARTA heavy rail lines in Buckhead through the Clifton Corridor out into DeKalb County, through Emory University and all the way to the Blue Line at Decatur.
The project will serve one of Atlanta’s busiest and most under-served areas in terms of transit, with employers including Emory University, Emory Hospital, the Centers for Disease Control, Children’s Healthcare, and the Veteran’s Administration Hospital all within close proximity of the planned light rail line. It will be funded by a combination of the TSPLOST approved by metro Atlanta voters in 2018 along with matching federal grants which could make up some 50% of the $2.1 billion projected final cost.
Currently the project is undergoing environmental impact reviews, after which it will move into the engineering phase before construction is slated to begin in 2022. Several tunnels will have to be carved out to avoid roads and other railways, as seen on the map above. The light rail system is expected to be operational by 2026, though of course delays are common in construction projects of this magnitude.
The Clifton Corridor rail system is the first of several expected to be built in the next decade, with similar projects in their on planning phase including the Express Lanes along SR 400 and another light rail line along the Atlanta BeltLine. MARTA continues to mull the project list even as the state itself looks at ways to get involved in a more regional sense under the new Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (the ATL).
