Atlanta City Council members who represent the heart of Downtown want MARTA to revisit the roughly $200 million redesign of the Five Points station, arguing the current plan creates roadblocks for pedestrians and cyclists and falls short of a bold central transit hub.
Why it matters: The more than 40-year-old Downtown station — the only place where all MARTA rail lines converge — is one of the most ambitious projects on the transit agency’s to-do list and will be a beehive of activity when Atlanta plays host to some 2026 World Cup games.
Yes, but: For decades after the World Cup, the station will serve the fast-changing neighborhood primed for more than $6 billion in public and private investment.
Catch up quick: This past August, MARTA announced the long-overdue makeover of the central station. Agency reps presented more than a dozen concepts, all of which call for removing the Brutalist canopy and creating an open space.
Details: In a letter Wednesday to MARTA and Mayor Andre Dickens, Council members Jason Dozier and Amir Farokhi say the preferred vision that the transit agency is circulating among city and civic leaders — which includes seven on-street bus bays around the plaza — doesn’t jibe with Atlanta’s pedestrian and cyclist-friendly vision for the area.
- “Crossing between the planned Summerhill [bus rapid transit] and the Five Points Station or traveling between planned developments will involve walking through a physical barrier of idling buses,” write the council members, who also want MARTA to re-engage the public about the station design.
- Farokhi and Dozier want MARTA to consider running buses below street level or elsewhere on or near the property.
State of play: Don’t rush the design and construction of one of the most important public transit projects just for the World Cup, Farokhi and Dozier write.
- Instead, “[s]maller scale, cheaper investments can be made in Five Points in the short-term while appropriate design and engineering is done…
Read the full article here
