Fresh Loaf

On July 1, a bunch of new laws covering everything from Confederate Heritage History Month to boll weevil eradication went into effect in Georgia.

One of those laws allows MARTA riders to consume food and drinks at transit stations — which means MARTA could sell them as well. The cash-strapped transit agency hopes the deal might add some much-needed revenue.

MARTA doesn’t know it, but it’s missing a gold mine. Here, free of charge, is one suggestion to make efficient use of space and maximize profits.

You are welcome. (H/T to Adrifting)

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Terminal Station

The Infrastructurist has a great post examining some of the country’s most beautiful train stations that were demolished to make way for bland developments or parking lots.

Atlanta receives shout outs for Terminal Station and Union Station. Both buildings were razed long ago to make way for the Richard B. Russell Federal Building and a parking lot, respectively.

About Terminal Station:

Atlanta was once the largest rail crossroads in the south. Travelers could get virtually everywhere quickly and conveniently by rail. Built in 1905, Terminal was the grand portal to the city. It had two Italianate towers and a huge train shed behind. When the station was razed in 1970, it was replaced by a government office building. These days Atlanta’s intercity rail depot is a small former commuter rail station located far north of downtown, adjacent to a 16-lane highway.

For another beautiful photo of Terminal Station, visit the cleverly named Terminal Station, an Atlanta blog focused on urban issues and development.

UPDATE: A reader whose family member works in the railroad industry sends word:

The statue you see in front of the station (on the little grass island) was placed in front of the Norfolk Southern Railway office building on Peachtree St. just a few weeks ago. It’s of Samuel Spencer, the first president of the Southern Railway. The interesting part is that it was sculpted by the same artist who did the Lincoln Memorial, Daniel Chester French.

(H/T to Dominick Brady, Photo courtesy GSU via Infrastructurist)

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In an effort to balance a budget battered by the dismal economy and restricted by the state goverment, the MARTA board decided today that straphangers will face a higher fare, see parking fees in paid lots increase $1, and lose some bus routes. The 25-cent fare increase, from $1.75 to $2, is the first since 2001 and is scheduled to take effect in October.

Thanks to some money management, the AJC’s Ariel Hart reports, trains will not have to stop at 1 a.m. as MARTA had originally proposed.

State lawmakers who failed to grasp the role MARTA plays in the economy might want to also pay attention to this next graph — or read the 3,000 comments the transit agency says it received during the public input period:

Events organizers wrote MARTA a letter last week asking it to reconsider the rail service cutback. The chief operating officer of the Chick-fil-A Bowl addressed the board before its vote Monday to reiterate the message and let them know the negative impact it would have on events.

So next session, if you lawmakers don’t pass a bill allowing MARTA more control over its finances, well then no football tickets for you!

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Even with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s $25 million lifeline, MARTA must still make cost-cutting measures — and revenue-boosting decision — to balance its budget. Proposed measures include a fare hike, parking fee increases and changes to bus and train routes and schedules.

The transit agency’s board is expected to vote on those measures today at 1:30 p.m. Prior to the vote, MARTA board members will weigh public comments and citizen concerns received last week and during the official comment period.

The AJC’s Ariel Hart reports that the service cuts will not be immediately implemented. More on what the MARTA board decides later today.

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The state Transportation Board this morning unanimously elected state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, as the new Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner. Once he resigns from the Gold Dome, Smith’s expected to move into GDOT offices on June 25th.

What exactly Smith’s duties will be is rather murky. Earlier this year, the Georgia General Assembly passed a bill pushed by Gov. Sonny Perdue that restructured the transportation planning power structure. Whereas previously the DOT board called the shots, now most of the people-moving decision-making will be made by a planning director appointed by the governor. It wasn’t what Perdue originally wanted, but he signed the bill. The governor hasn’t named his planning director pick. (UPDATE: Dick Pettys of Insider Advantage reports just now that Perdue has named Todd Long, formerly or DOT and the Georgia Regional Transporation Authority, as planning director.)

Pettys also reports that there was some debate among boardmembers over how to interpret the governance reform bill, but that they’ve decided to hold off until all the pieces of the bureaucratic puzzle come together.

In a released statement, Smith says the state and DOT must work together to finally solve Georgia’s transportation woes. He adds that the deep-in-the-red department sorely needs new funding. During his time under the Gold Dome, Smith pushed for a statewide one-cent sales tax that would fund new roads, bridges and transit. Like all transportation funding proposals in the Legislature, it never passed.

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Second for crime, first for infrastructure! Go, Atlanta, go!

From the Atlanta Business Chronicle:

According to the fourth annual “In the Driver’s Seat Road Rage Survey,” commissioned by AutoVantage, Atlanta is the fourth-worst American city for road rage. New York unseated Miami as the least courteous city. In second is Dallas/Fort Worth and third is Detroit. Fifth is Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The main culprits cited by those surveyed included bad/careless driving, such as cutting others off, speeding, tailgating, talking on cell phones, making obscene gestures and not using proper signals.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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…that’s not the real story.

The veteran political reporter’s sources say the state agency wants to avoid ending the fiscal year with a deficit, possibly by tapping $75 million in federal funding. There’s also the question over what exactly Senate Bill 200, a piece of legislation that shakes up Georgia’s transportation power structure, means for GDOT.

At the same time – and this is where it gets interesting – talks have been underway between the DOT staff and the governor’s office over how to implement SB 200, the governance reform bill that gives the governor (through the new planning director) and the Legislature (through new budget authority) broader control over DOT. There are some loose ends that the bill does not address.

Some believe the two issues have become entangled in something of a quid pro quo, with the governor holding both a carrot (the bailout money) and a stick (the new rules which dissidents believe give the planning director – and through the planning director, Perdue – more power over issues like public-private partnerships and funding allocation formulas than the law stipulates.)

Others don’t see any such entanglement, but this week’s meeting should be interesting nonetheless. Even if there is no suspense about the new commissioner.

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The Clean Air Campaign, an Atlanta-based booster of alternate commuting, has posted a video that shows how foolish the estimated 60 percent of metro Atlantans who drive to work by themselves actually look — minus the steel, LCD screens playing “The View,” and dusty coffee tumblers that have surely caked your cloth interior with Maxwell House juice.

The animation then shows the effect that shared commutes, teleworking and riding transit could have on road capacity. Big difference.

To view the campaign’s animation, click the screenshot to the right.

For more information about how to connect with rideshare buds, transit options, teleworking tools and other ways you can join the more than 350,000 metro Atlantans who don’t drive to work by themselves, visit the Clean Air Campaign’s “Improve Your Commute” page. The campaign also offers incentives to motorists who give alternate commuting a shot.

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TIME magazine has a hilarious pool report of today’s D.C. sitdown between Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood and several governors on the topic of high-speed rail. Gov. Sonny Perdue was among those in D.C. for the meeting:

Upon entering, VPOTUS ran into Perdue who appeared, to the VPOTUS at least, to be leaving before the meeting started. Banter and jokes followed.

VPOTUS: “Where you going?”
Perdue: “I was leaving.”
VPOTUS: “What the hell’s wrong with you?” (laughter)

VPOTUS shook hands around the table with several “Good to see you, man,” and “Good to see you, Ed [Rendell].” Said upon sitting: “…Georgia gets nothing. I’m only kidding, only kidding, only kidding.”

Biden knows, y’all. He knows.

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Business blogger Maria Saporta reports state Rep. Vance Smith, R-Pine Mountain, seems to be the most likely candidate to be named the next Georgia Department of Transportation commissioner.

Smith, chairman of the House transportation committee, has been interested in the DOT job for nearly two years, and it appears he will get his wish.

The deadline for applications from people interested in the DOT job was today at 5 p.m.

Word has it that Smith’s top two potential competitors did not apply for the job, meaning that he is the last man standing.

Saporta reports one of those competitors, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Executive Director Dick Anderson, decided to stick with GRTA to try to implement the governor’s recently completed statewide transportation plan. Interim GDOT Commissioner Gerald Ross is rumored to return to his position as chief engineer.

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Even with the Atlanta Regional Commission’s $25 million lifeline, MARTA’s still nearly $110 million in the red. Yesterday, the transit agency released its budget proposal, which includes several changes it’s mulling to cut costs. Here’s a quick rundown:

MARTA riders could potentially see:

• 25 cent fare increase

• $1 parking fee increases in seven paid lots

• Bus route modification or eliminations

• Ending MARTA train service at midnight

• Longer wait times between trains

MARTA employees could potentially see:

• Annual merit increases eliminated

• Increase in employees’ contributions to health benefit plans

• 10 furlough days

If you want the specific details transit agency’s cash situation, download MARTA’s 2010 budget proposal (PDF).

MARTA will hold public hearings to solicit citizen input about the proposed changes. Those dates and locations are pasted after the jump.

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In a packed meeting at its downtown headquarters, the Atlanta Regional Commission threw cash-strapped MARTA a life preserver today, approving a reallocation of $25 million in federal stimulus dollars to help the transit agency avoid drastic service reductions.

Officials stressed the one-time funding shuffle wasn’t a bailout. Under the terms of the agreement, MARTA will shift money from its capital fund to pay for MARTA-related road projects that will benefit the region.

Today’s one-time move by the ARC proved necessary after the Georgia General Assembly failed to pass legislation earlier this year that would allow MARTA more control over its funding. MARTA officials said the transit agency risked cutting a full day of service should new funding not be secured.

The deal wasn’t met with enthusiasm from everyone.

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Dave Williams of the Atlanta Business Chronicle managed to sneak into the Atlanta Regional Commission’s commuter-rail sitdown today at the Henry County Chamber of Commerce. He reports local and federal officials say they support the Atlanta-Griffin project:

Supporters of a proposed route linking Atlanta and Griffin agreed to help the cash-strapped Georgia Department of Transportation complete a study of the project’s economic development potential.

The report, due as early as August, also is to determine how much local governments would need to contribute to match $87 million in federal funds set aside for the project in 1998, and a business model for how that local money could be raised.

Williams reports both U.S. Congressmen David Scott, D-Atlanta, and Lynn Westmoreland, R-Grantville, voiced their support for the line. Westmoreland, a member of the Congressional committee that has threatened to claw back the commuter-rail project’s $87 million in federal funding, says he plans to meet with committee leadership in the next week to discuss the issue.

Our source reports ARC officials this morning also voiced their support to keep the earkmarked funds dedicated to the rail line.

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As I write this, local and federal officials are gathered at the Henry County Chamber of Commerce in McDonough for an invite-only meeting to discuss just what the hell can be done to finally make the long-planned Atlanta-Griffin commuter rail line a reality.

CL tried to weasel its way into the meeting, which has been called by the Atlanta Regional Commission. But no dice. Word from sources is that U.S. Reps. Lynn Westmoreland and David Scott are either personally attending or have representatives at the meeting.

Time’s a-tickin’ on the project. The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee told Congressmen last month it was ready to pull federal funding on people-moving projects that have languished in limbo for extended periods of time. For nearly a decade the state has sat on $87 million in federal funds to build the Atlanta-Griffin project. The money’s there to upgrade the lines, but state and local leaders haven’t been able to figure out a way to pay for the rail lines operations and maintenance costs.

More to come when we hear from our li’l birdies who are attending the meeting.

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Atlanta Beltline Inc. President and CEO Terri Montague says she’ll depart the agency tasked with designing the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit on Sept. 1.

“It has been my privilege to serve the City and the BeltLine team in this capacity and to help the project achieve its early milestones and momentum over these nearly three years,” Montague said in a press release. “BeltLine implementation has come a very long way in a very short time—thanks in part to the project’s many partners and supporters.”

Montague joined the Beltline in July 2006. ABI says she’ll assist the organization in a consulting capacity until the end of the year to help with her successor’s transition.

More to come. The full press release is after the jump.

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U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., visited the Atlanta Press Club today and spoke about rail, water woes and the nation’s standstill economy. (He said it might take five years for the nation to recover.) Isakson also said the closing of the Hapeville Ford Plant might have hurt the region’s chances for the Atlanta-Lovejoy rail line.

Maria Saporta and the AJC’s Kristi Swartz wrote great summaries of his speech. Grayson Daughters also produced a video of Isakson’s talk.

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The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports the Beltline will receive $1 million as part of a $1.8 million grant package from the U.S. government to clean up brownfields.

The grants, which include $400,000 from the federal government’s stimulus program and $1.4 million from the EPA brownfields general program funding, will help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, EPA said. Brownfields are sites where expansion, redevelopment, or reuse may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

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On April 16, President Barack Obama gave rail lovers some long-awaited good news: As part of the president’s stimulus plan, he offered $8 billion to begin linking major U.S. cities with high-speed rail lines — and an additional $5 billion more to improve rail service over the next four years.

“We need high-speed rail,” Obama said. “It’s happening right now. It’s been happening for decades. The problem is, it’s been happening elsewhere, not here.”

By “elsewhere,” the president was referring to Europe and Asia. But he could just as easily have been talking about Southeastern states other than Georgia. Thanks to a lack of vision, little to no funding, and an almost cartoonish addiction to roads, the Peach State’s far behind many of its neighbors when it comes to rail.

Transit and transportation advocates say if the state’s leadership doesn’t work to catch up, Georgia could miss out on a nationwide rail renaissance.

Click here to continue reading this story.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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David Schaengold of the Witherspoon Institute published a thought-provoking essay this month titled “Why Conservatives Should Care About Transit.”

Schaengold says ‘mass transit vs. more roads’ became a ‘Democrats vs Republicans’ battle during the 1970s:

This association can be traced to the ’70s, when cities became associated with social dysfunction and suburbs remained bastions of ‘normalcy.’

Schaengold argues that the Republican Party’s love of asphalt undermines core conservative values:

Pro-highway, anti-transit, anti-pedestrian policies work against the core beliefs of American conservatives in another and even more important way: they create social environments that are hostile to real community . . . [d]ense, walkable settlements are not just a pleasant lifestyle choice. They are a precondition of the strong, inter-connected communities that social conservatives desire.

Are you listening, Jerry Keen?

(I would tip my hat to Andrew Sullivan for the link, but someone on MARTA stole it. I’m pressing charges.)

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State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a 2010 Republican candidate for governor, sat down with Fox5’s Paul Yates in one of the station’s series of interviews with gubernatorial hopefuls. The commenters at Peach Pundit are debating Oxendine’s position that the government is responsible for providing water to its citizenry.

But it was “The Ox’s” comment that cash-strapped MARTA needs to be “reworked” — and that the state should examine the pros and cons of privatizing the system — that caught my eye.

(Hat tip to Jim Galloway and Jason Shepard at Peach Pundit)

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From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama called Thursday for the country to move swiftly to a system of high-speed rail travel, saying it will relieve congestion, help clean the air and save on energy.

Appearing with Vice President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Obama said the country cannot afford not to invest in a major upgrade to rail travel. He said he understands it necessarily will be “a long-term project” but said the time to start is now.

The president allocated $8 billion in the enormous $787 billion economic stimulus spending package for a start on establishing high-speed rail corridors nationwide.

Included on this list:

- Southeast corridor (Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Macon, Columbia, Savannah, Jacksonville)

- Gulf Coast corridor (Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Birmingham, Atlanta)

Now if only Georgia would join that Atlanta-New Orleans study commission…

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Jim Walls at Atlanta Unfiltered reports:

Atlanta school officials took action Monday to keep some or all of an $18 million pot collected for the city’s BeltLine project.

The Board of Education voted to change the effective date of its decision to allow school tax money to be spent on the BeltLine. The board first OK’d the funding in 2005. Under a complicated resolution that you really don’t want to read, the board said its decision will take effect this year instead.

In the meantime, the board plans to renegotiate the split for the $18 million that’s already in the bank.

School officials emphasized they still back the BeltLine. “We voted to support the beltline in December of 2005, and that support level is still there,” board Chair LaChandra Butler Burks said.

APS staff sent CL a copy of Monday’s resolution. Take a look at it here.

And why should any of this matter? Walls sums it up very nicely.

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And while we’re on the topic of saving MARTA, the transit agency is asking your opinion on potential cuts it might have to make to offset its budget shortfall.

There are a whole host of questions — asking if you’d mind if MARTA sold advertising on Breeze Cards, closed bathrooms, etc. If you’ve got something to tell them, there’s an online way to do it.

Check it out here.

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Transit supporters take note: grassroots coalition Save MARTA is asking you to hop on the bus or train next Friday to raise awareness about the people mover’s woes.

From the event’s Facebook page:

In light of impending MARTA service cuts due to state level legislative action and inaction, Metro Atlantans are coming together to support the transit system by celebrating Ride MARTA Day on Friday, April 17. On Ride MARTA Day, participants will all ride MARTA at least once, per their usual commute or replacing their usual mode of transportation. Participants will ride at the time of their choosing. In other words, all you need to do is ride the bus or train on Friday, April 17.

The purpose of Ride MARTA Day is to bring all concerned Metro Atlantans into a community building activity that will boost ridership, expose new riders to useful routes, express solidarity with MARTA workers and regular commuters, and demonstrate that, as the backbone of our transportation system, MARTA must be fairly funded.

Atlanta City Councilmember Kwanza Hall is scheduled to participate. As of this writing, there are 118 confirmed guests for the event. UPDATE: The event also has an official site. Check it out here.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)

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Beltline officials on Monday will provide residents of Southeast Atlanta a chance to offer their opinion on how they want to move around the 22-mile loop of parks, trails and transit. Officials will also show them how they’ll move.

The meeting, the first of five Environmental Impact Study workshops, will be held at Trees Atlanta at 6:30 p.m. It will reportedly include a Google Earth animation that will take people on a virtual tour of the project’s path. Beltline officials will take citizen input on the how the trail and transit paths should be aligned, where station stops should be located, and what type of transportation — light-rail, streetcar, etc. — they think should be used.

The meeting is scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m. Click here for directions to Trees Atlanta. A list of the remaining workshops follows after the jump. To download a flyer that includes all the workshop dates and locations, click here. (Warning: PDF)

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