So, /n/erds, the City of Atlanta is getting to vote on increasing its own sales tax .5% until 2057 (to a total of 8.5%), with the additional .5% going to fund MARTA expansions in the city proper. We're looking at $2.5 Billion in revenue plus federal matching, and what ever the city /MARTA throws in on top of that from their respective surpluses.
The draft of the project list just came out yesterday and I'm pretty fucking excited:
- 20+ miles Light Rail / streetcar expansion
- 11 miles Bus rapid Transit
- 2 miles Heavy Rail extension
- 5 Arterial Rapid Transit bus route upgrades
- 5 Frequent local service bus route upgrades
- 6 Neighborhood circulator bus routes
- 2 Bus transit centers
- 4 Heavy rail infill stations
- 8 Heavy Rail station rehabilitation / capacity improvements
- 6 Heavy Rail station maintenance / aesthetic upgrades
- Pedestrian / ADA / Bicycle improvements along ART / BRT corridors and at 7 Heavy Rail stations
- New trains
- New buses
It's a long cry from what we were originally planning with the 2-county plan, but oh well. Dekalb County is looking like it's gonna get in on the game next year, and Fulton can wallow in it's own traffic until the northern metro politicians figure out MARTA isn't for bringing in crime and black people (as if those don't already exist in swaths outside the city already)
Here was the plan back before the fucks in the county decided they'd rather try to tax for roads instead of trains and buses.
This was before CoA had gotten its specific project list. You can see that a few of the ART routes overlap from this plan into the CoA specific plan.
We'll have to see what the county cucks say in 4-5 years when their road tax ends.
>>955667
Link to the powerpoint presentation:
http://posting.clatl.com/media/pdf/marta_project_list_presentation.pdf
>Implying the ballot measure will pass
Atlanta is simply too cucked by cages. MARTA has always had the drawback of having to serve multiple counties, hence the reason why the heavy rail system is more of a commuter system rather than a real intra-city transport scheme. Also $2.5B is nothing compared to what they would need to do to expand service to the entire metro region like they're supposed too.
Until the state of Georgia uncucks itself (pro-tip: it won't) and starts helping with the costs, MARTA will never have the funding to become a serious transit network. But hey, could be worse. You could be in Miami.
>>955770
>Atlanta is simply too cucked by cages. MARTA has always had the drawback of having to serve multiple counties, hence the reason why the heavy rail system is more of a commuter system rather than a real intra-city transport scheme. Also $2.5B is nothing compared to what they would need to do to expand service to the entire metro region like they're supposed too.
The good news is that this vote is CoA only. No extra counties, no rest of the metro, just CoA. Also, it's in an election year, which should help with turn out.
Back in 2012, Atlanta proper was the only area to really pass the pile of shit that was the TSPLOST. This list is gonna give a much better deal to the city itself, even better than the original $8 Billion plan, and polls have been showing strong support for expansion.
Here's hoping the city unfucks itself just a bit.
