Commuter Rail in Atlanta

[KC0KEK]

MARTA has it share of financial woes, yet they still find ways to expand. Then again, I guess that the key difference between the Lovejoy line and the JoCo line is that it's easier to expand an existing system than to start from scratch.


[ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 1/26/04 ]

Atlanta to Lovejoy?
Proposed commuter rail service could breathe life into Clayton County town

By KEVIN DUFFY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Conjure up an image of a commuter rail city, and Lovejoy in Clayton County is not likely to come to mind.

Lovejoy is known for the three detention centers in the old town area and Dorsey's Nursery and Garden Center on Tara Boulevard, where customers learn the do's and don'ts of planting.

It's also known for LaCosta, a neighborhood of 650 well-kept mobile homes on land owned by County Commissioner Charley Griswell's wife and sons.

Lovejoy has just two full-time employees: the city clerk and the clerk's assistant. Services, such as police and fire protection, are provided by the county.

No matter. If metro Atlanta begins commuter train service, a line to little Lovejoy is likely to be the starting point. That's how far funds would stretch.

The plan is to spend $87 million in federal funds and $19 million in state money to upgrade the train track, build park-and-ride lots and station platforms with canopies, and refurbish rail cars. From Lovejoy, the train would glide 26 miles northward to Jonesboro, Morrow, Forest Park, East Point and downtown Atlanta.

The Georgia Department of Transportation is eager to begin construction to eliminate the risk of losing the federal money when Congress adopts its next transportation bill.

"It's not available forever," says Hal Wilson, the department's administrator of intermodal programs. "The longer you wait to use it, the more you're tampering with fate."

The big question is how to subsidize the operating expenses after the third year of service, when federal money would run out. Gov. Sonny Perdue so far hasn't endorsed the rail service because of concerns that the state might be saddled with millions of dollars in costs.

The Transportation Department plans to talk with community leaders about how to offset long-term operating expenses. It also must negotiate with track owner Norfolk Southern over sharing the railway. Norfolk Southern spokesman Joel Harrell says the railroad is open to commuter train service on some of its lines, including Lovejoy-Atlanta.

Wilson hopes that all can be worked out in the next few months so construction can begin this year and service can start in 2006.

Lovejoy can't wait.

"You build it, and they will come," says Mayor Joe Murphy, sitting in a room at City Hall decorated with portraits of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara. The Civil War stories of novelist Margaret Mitchell's great-grandfather, a Clayton resident, inspired "Gone With the Wind."

Murphy sees train service as spurring redevelopment along the railroad track, which over the years has lost most of its old brick buildings.

Lovejoy's population is about 4,000, but train planners say commuter service would draw from at least 10 miles outside the city. People living near Hampton, McDonough and Fayetteville -- all growing cities -- would drive to a park-and-ride lot in Lovejoy and board one of two morning trains.

"The village stuff of walking down to the station is over," Wilson says of suburban train service. "Parking is critical. You put 500 spaces in, you immediately need 600."

The Transportation Department projects that more than 700 people would use the train in the mornings. With a monthly pass, the trip into Atlanta might cost $4, and $4 more to return, Wilson says. Without a pass, the ticket might be $5 each way.

Eager to ride

Cassandra Sheffield, who carpools with her husband from Hampton to a job in Midtown Atlanta, says she definitely would give the train a try.

"I'm originally from New Jersey," Sheffield says. "I'm not used to this. If I'm without a car, I can't get to work."

Another Hampton commuter, Terri Roycroft, also says she'd try the train. She is fed up with parking fees and traffic jams.

"It's probably an hour and 15 minutes on a rainy day and 45 minutes on a nice day," Roycroft says of her commute. "To see how traffic has increased, it's really disheartening."

Daniel Dorsey, an owner of the garden center, wonders how train service attracting more people would benefit longtime residents who enjoy country living.

"I don't know," Dorsey says. "It's hard to see, for somebody who's been here all their lives, how good it is."

But Al Harrell, owner of Lovejoy's most popular restaurant, the Country Bumpkin Cafe, says the town's location is ideal for a train stop.

"Lovejoy is the sleeper bedroom community of the metro Atlanta area," Harrell says. "It really sits in the middle of a large population, as far as the Southern Crescent's concerned."

A train station would be a big boon, in his opinion. "I hope they put it across the street."

The Transportation Department hasn't decided where to locate the proposed station. It could go near the new gas stations and fast-food restaurants on Tara Boulevard. Or it might end up in the old part of town, near City Hall.

Ellis Conkle hopes for the latter. He owns Conkle's Tree Service ("A Family Tree-dition") and seven acres in the old section of town.

"I would be happy if they bought my place," he says.

Focus of development

City Councilman Arlie Aukerman says train service "is going to make Lovejoy blossom more than ever."

On a driving tour of his hometown of 20 years, Aukerman points out the good and the bad.

Lovejoy Road west of Tara Boulevard is alive with intense residential development. Houses starting around $130,000 are going up on both sides of the road. An apartment complex with 280 units was recently built next to the site of a future Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The low point of Aukerman's tour is in the town's old section, where a three-acre abandoned trailer park has been partly demolished. Lovejoy's City Council and the landowner are battling over what to do with the tract.

If Manassas Park, Va., is any example, commuter rail service could turn today's dilapidated trailer site into tomorrow's upscale residential building.

Less than 30 miles west of Washington, Manassas Park is the smallest city on the Virginia Rail Express line. The train service "has become sort of a focus for development," says Manassas Park's planning director, Dan Painter. Undeveloped industrial land was rezoned to high-density residential because of the demand for housing near the station, he says.

A 350-unit gated apartment complex recently opened next to the train stop. Nearby, townhouses and condominiums are selling for $350,000 and up.

"What we're attracting out here are people who work in downtown D.C.: very well-paid professional people," Painter says. In fact, the train is so popular that only those who board at the farthest stations find seats, he says.

Clayton County Commissioner Carl Rhodenizer, chairman of the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority, says Atlanta train service will reduce car trips to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, where more than 40,000 people work.

"A great number of those people don't need their automobiles during the day," Rhodenizer says. "We forget the impact of Hartsfield here."

[KCK]

This doesn't exactly help Atlanta when it is encouraged that people live far away in their rich elitist suburbs, but I guess little can actually stop sprawl so they might as well try to alleviate traffic.