Artist conception of new Atlanta streetcar.
Artist conception of new Atlanta streetcar.
Groundbreaking for Atlanta streetcar project
ATLANTA - They haven't traveled Atlanta's streets since 1949, but streetcars will make a comeback in a couple of years, at least in a small part of downtown.
The question is whether the streetcars will create desire or waste.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood joined Mayor Kasim Reed and other dignitaries in a symbolic groundbreaking for the project in the city's Sweet Auburn district on Wednesday.
The 2.6 mile route will connect that historic Civil Rights area, including the MLK Center, with Centennial Olympic Park and its variety of museums and attractions.
The city won a $47-million federal grant for the project 15 months ago, but the it's now expected to cost nearly twice that much.
The City of Atlanta will have to make up the difference.
Supporters of the project say it will create nearly 1,000 temporary construction jobs and more than 5,000 permanent jobs later as new businesses crop up along the route.
"Other cities that we're competing against have made streetcar and light rail investments and where they've made those kind of investments, hundreds of millions of dollars of addition investment have followed," said Mayor Reed.
But some critics, like the Fulton County Taxpayers Association, consider it a wasteful boondoggle.
"It just doesn't make a lot of fiscal sense to pour a lot of money into a streetcar that we don't even know is gonna be used," said Taxpayer Association Executive Director Barbara Payne.
"That's kind of the problem transportation-wise in Atlanta, all these interesting ideas with no kind of feasibility if they're even going to be used and how much it's going to cost taxpayers in the end," she added.
In fact, Atlanta's share of the project has already increased $20-million since getting the Federal grant in the fall of 2010.
Construction of the streetcar line is expected to take 2 to 3 years and cause major disruption on streets along the route.