Streetcars in Atlanta

A view of a horsecar on Peachtree Street in 1882

Atlanta streetcar, 1910. Pay-as-you-enter cars were being introduced at the time

In February 2012 construction kicked off on the first modern streetcar line in Atlanta. There are proposals for several additional streetcar routes.

Streetcars operated in Atlanta starting with horsecars in 1871; electric streetcar service started in the 1880s. The last streetcar service on the old network ended in 1949; the streetcar system was quickly replaced by a trolleybus system and with buses. In addition to streetcars in Atlanta proper there were also interurban railways from Atlanta to outlying towns.

Streetcars 1871-1949

Map of Atlanta's streetcar system in 1924

Map of Atlanta's streetcar system and other transit in 1946

Timeline and Streetcar Operators

• 1871 Richard Peters and George Adair run the first streetcars on the Atlanta Street Railway, service to West End
• 1872 West End & Atlanta Street Railroad Co. formed, service to West End and Westview Cemetery
• 1878 Adair sells out to Peters
• 1879 Gate City Street Railroad Co. formed, service to Anjier Springs and Ponce de Leon Springs
• 1882 Metropolitan Street Railroad Co. formed, lines to the Confederate Soldiers' Home near Ormewood Park and to Decatur
• 1883 Fulton County Street Railroad Co. formed, lines would include the Nine-Mile Circle
• 1886 Joel Hurt forms the Atlanta & Edgewood Street Railroad Co., service out Edgewood Ave. to Hilliard and Highland and to Inman Park
• 1889 Hurt's streetcar - Atlanta's first electric line - begins to run between Five Points and Inman Park and control of Peter's company passed to son Edward C. Peters; Fulton County Street RR Co. begins its Nine-Mile Circle line to what is now Virginia Highland, powered by the electric Thomson-Houston system.
• 1890 Atlanta, West End & McPherson Barracks Ry. Co. begins powered by the electric Sprague system
• 1891 Law passed requiring segregation on streetcars "as much as practicable" and at the enforcement of streetcar conductors. Prior to this, it was common for Black and white passengers to sit next to each other on streetcars.
• 1891 (May) Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway Company formed instigating the Second Battle of Atlanta
• 1892 Atlanta City Street Railway Co. begins powered by the electric Detroit system
• 1902 All street railways consolidated as Georgia Railway and Power Company
• 1916 Atlanta transit strike of 1916 began at 6pm on Saturday, September 30 and ended that Monday evening, but the strike started after sundown those three days so the city wasn't completely paralyzed
• 1924 The Beeler Report issued to advise the financially ailing company
• 1926 Peak of passenger service (96,794,273)
• 1937 Trackless trolleys introduced
• 1949 Georgia Power runs its last streetcar, leaving only trackless trolleys and buses

Routes

From 1889-1901, the famed Nine-Mile Circle line ran from Downtown Atlanta to Ponce de Leon Springs and what is now Virginia Highland.

In 1924, Georgia Power operated the following streetcar lines (see map above):

• 1 Decatur St.-Marietta St.
• 2 Ponce de Leon-West View (east terminus: Ponce at East Lake Rd.)
• 3 Boulevard-West Hunter
• 4 Inman Park-Georgia Ave. (alternative eastern termini: McLendon at Clifton and Emory)
• 5 Highland-South Pryor (north terminus: Virginia Ave. at N. Highland Ave.)
• 6 Forrest-Capitol (Forrest Ave. is now Ralph McGill Blvd.) (north terminus: Boulevard at Orme Cir.)
• 7 West Peachtree-East Hunter
• 8 Howell Mill Road-East Fair
• 10 Peachtree-Whitehall
• 11 Luckie-Woodward
• 12 Copper-Pine
• 13 Irwin-West Fair St.
• 14 Orme St.-Magnolia St.
• 15 Piedmont-Washington
• 16 Pine Street (see route 12) (eastern terminus: Ponce de Leon Park)
• 17 Main Decatur
• 18 South Decatur-East Lake
• 19 River Line
• 20 College Park & Hapeville
• 21 Stewart Ave. (see route 1)
• 22 English Ave.-Soldiers' Home
• 23 Buckhead & Oglethorpe
• 24 McDaniel St.

Source:Georgia Power timetable, 1924

Former interurban lines

Georgia Railway and Power Company ran lines on private rights-of-way from Atlanta to:

• Marietta, the 16-mile Atlanta Northern line, from 1905–1947
• Hopewell and Stone Mountain, 16 miles, 1913–1947
• College Park and Fairburn

Lines under construction

Downtown Loop

This line, called both the Downtown Loop or simply the Atlanta Streetcar, is to run from Centennial Olympic Park along Edgewood and Auburn avenues to the King Center and will have a stop at MARTA's Peachtree Center Station. The exact route is:

• begin at the southwest corner of the King Historic Site at Jackson St. and Auburn Ave.
• Westbound along Auburn Ave. to Peachtree St.
• north on Peachtree St., stopping at Peachtree Center MARTA station, to Ellis St.
• west on Ellis St. to Carnegie Wy.
• northwest on Carnegie Way to Andrew Young International Blvd.
• west on Andrew Young International Blvd. to Centennial Olympic Park Dr. (at Centennial Olympic Park)
• southeast on Luckie St., crossing Peachtree St. to Pryor St.
• south on Pryor St. to Edgewood Ave.
• east on Edgewood Ave. to Jackson St.
• north on Jackson st. to Auburn Ave.

Proposed streetcar lines (21st century)

Peachtree

A much longer route along Peachtree Street, the city's main street. Originally, the line was to run from the Oakland City neighborhood through Downtown Atlanta, Midtown and Buckhead. However a more recent (2010) pared-down proposal would run between the Arts Center MARTA station in Midtown and the Five Points MARTA station downtown.

BeltLine routes

Streetcar routes that would be funded by 1-cent sales tax, which will be voted on in July 2012

In July 2012, there will be a referendum on a 1-cent sales tax (SPLOST) to fund traffic and road improvements. If approved, the tax will fund several streetcar routes along portions of the BeltLine trail and connections onto MARTA stations and with the Downtown Loop streetcar. The final list of projects to be funded included 2 routes (maps, p.56-57):

• Midtown to Northeast: from North Ave. MARTA station (1) east along North Ave. to the BeltLine, then north along BeltLine to 10th and Monroe (southeast corner of Piedmont Park) (2) and south to Edgewood St. (3) and connection to the Downtown streetcar at its eastern terminus (which would be extended from it current proposed terminus at Jackson St.)
• Downtown/Midtown to Southwest:
  • branch from North Ave. station to Luckie St. (4)
  • branch from the western terminus of the Downtown streetcar at Centennial Olympic Park/CNN to Luckie St. (4)
  • from Luckie St. (4) along North Avenue, Northside Drive, out Donald L. Hollowell Parkway to the Bankhead neighborhood (5), then south along the BeltLine to Abernathy and Cascade in West End/Westview (6).

The earlier proposal in March 2011 included two lines that did not make the final list:

• Bankhead MARTA to Midtown: From Bankhead MARTA station north along the BeltLine, then east along 17th St. past Atlantic Station to Arts Center MARTA station
• Armour Yard to Midtown: From Armour Yard (proposed new transit station near I-85/Monroe exit), south along the BeltLine, then west along North Ave.

Source:

C-Loop (abandoned concept)

In 2005, MARTA analyzed - in addition to the BeltLine - the "C-Loop" ("C"-shaped rail line) linking Emory University, Lindbergh Center, Atlantic Station, Georgia Tech, the Georgia Dome, the AUC, Turner Field, Grant Park, and proceeding eastward along I-20 to South DeKalb Mall. The route originated from the efforts of Reps. John Lewis, Denise Majette and Cynthia McKinney, who obtained funding from the Dept. of Transportation for a $2 million dollar feasibility study. The concept no longer appears in proposals from the various Georgia transportation authorities, however the part of the route is now part of the Clifton Corridor initiative to build either MARTA rail, light rail, and/or bus rapid transit between Lindbergh and Emory and on to Avondale MARTA station.

Northern Crescent

In June 2011 the Gwinnett, Cobb, and North Fulton Chambers of Commerce held a summit to promote light rail transit in the northern metropolitan area. It was especially remarkable in light of decades-long opposition to rapid transit in the area. Proposed routes (see map) would form a "W" and connect:

• Kennesaw, Marietta and the Cumberland edge city with the Arts Center MARTA Station along I-75
• Alpharetta with the Dunwoody MARTA Station along Georgia 400
• The Suwannee area in Gwinnett with the Doraville MARTA Station
• Doraville, Dunwoody, and the Cumberland area in an arc along the northern Perimeter

Chronology of Atlanta's modern streetcars

Atlanta Streetcar, Inc.

Atlanta Streetcar, Inc. (ASC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 with the mission to bring streetcars back to downtown Atlanta. ASC's board members include the leaders of Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, MARTA, Georgia World Congress Center, Buckhead Community Improvement District, Buckhead Coalition, Underground Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress, Woodruff Arts Center, and many local corporate business leaders as well.

Peachtree Corridor Partnership

In the summer of 2007, a new privately funded group called the Peachtree Corridor Partnership was formed, with the goal of determining how best to move forward the proposed rebuilding of Peachtree Street as a more attractive and pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare. The addition of a modern streetcar line was (and remains) one of the main components of the proposed transformation of the corridor, so many of the board members of ASC became members of the Peachtree Corridor Task Force, and the partnership eventually replaced the function of ASC as the organization advocating for a streetcar line along Peachtree Street.

In July 2009, the Atlanta city council approved funding a feasibility study to work out certain details of the proposed streetcar line in time to apply for federal economic-stimulus funds for the construction of a such a line. However, several council members later expressed doubts over whether the remainder of the funding necessary to bring the project to fruition was likely, particularly during a time of recession.

Downtown Loop route funded

In September 2010, it was announced that Phase I of the Atlanta Streetcar Project had received $47 million in federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) II funding. The funding represents 8% of the overall TIGER II allotment, and will fund the construction of the downtown loop, not the Peachtree Corridor line, which is now regarded as Phase II of the project.

In May 2011 Siemens announced that it had won the $17.2 million contract to build the four streetcars that will run on the Downtown Connector line. According to Siemens, the first vehicle was expected to be delivered in September 2012.

They would be based on the company's S70 light rail vehicle platform, built in Sacramento, California, but with major components, including the propulsion system, assembled at Siemens' Alpharetta plant in the Atlanta metropolitan area.

In February 2012 the city announced that the budget would increase from $70 million to $90 million. The city attributed the increase to:<ref=ajc020112/>

• about $9 million to purchase newer and more expensive streetcars that could last 20 years longer than the refurbished ones that were originally planned to be purchased
• $4 million so that the Livable Communities Initiative could provide grants for sidewalk improvements
• Additional work by the water department to move water and sewer pipes

See also

• Nine-Mile Circle streetcar line to Virginia Highland
• Timeline of mass transit in Atlanta
• Trolleybuses in Atlanta

External links

Streetcars 1871-1949

• Atlanta's Streetcars of the Nineteenth Century: a forum for identification and documentation
• Images of Atlanta Streetcars

Current proposed streetcar system

• Atlanta Streetcar
• Peachtree Corridor Partnership homepage
• Environmental Assessment for the Atlanta Streetcar, prepared by the City of Atlanta and MARTA for the US DOT
• Atlanta BeltLine, Inc., "Citywide Briefing on Transit Implementation Strategy & Transportation Investment Act Projects", Feb 17, 2011