On April 1, popular social media account gafollowersofficial caused a stir with their April Fools’ joke; announcing a new MARTA line extending into Cobb County to be completed by 2124.
Of course, MARTA has announced no such plans despite the amount of speculation the idea has generated over the years, and if there were they would likely be completed in less than a century.
In 2022, professional engineer Caleb Stubbs released his ATL Trains concept. Titled, “ATL Trains: A Vision for a Comprehensive, Connected, and Financially Feasible Regional Rail System in the Atlanta Region”, it’s a 139-page proposal envisioning the possibility of improved transit options in Georgia.
As Cobb County argues the costs related to increasing public transit options, Stubbs’ proposal argues a less expensive way of adding regional rail to the area. By using already existing infrastructure, regional rail could be added to freight lines that are already there, cutting construction costs.
“That’s one thing that’s really great about regional rail as opposed to a MARTA rail expansion,” Stubbs said. “Where MARTA can only operate on it and has to build from scratch any extension they want to build, the freight rail infrastructure and the right of way is already in place and it’s just a matter of expanding it and doing the necessary improvements.”
One key component of the ATL Trains concept is the different types of transit that would be made available for use. For Kennesaw State students, that would mean there are more intercity options to get commuters from further away in Georgia than the Atlanta metro area, even possibly from neighboring states.
“Students come in from different cities and maybe live a couple hours away from the Atlanta region and want to visit families occasionally,” Stubbs said. “That’s where the intercity rail layer of it comes in and is accessible to students no matter where they are in the Atlanta region.”
While the ATL Trains proposal is unlikely to be built any time soon, Stubbs does say that it wouldn’t take long for it to be functional should the approval happen. He looks to similar projects that have taken off recently, making note of a rail system in Virginia.
“A good example in Virginia is an intercity passenger rail line that they created a couple years ago from Roanoke,” Stubbs said. “Connecting Roanoke and Western Virginia to DC, and they started with just a single train per day, with not much infrastructure required beyond buying the train set. It was extremely successful with that first train and then they expanded it to two and on from there.”
As Cobb County has grown exponentially over the past few decades, the need for more reliable public transportation has been a common conversation among residents. A transit sales tax referendum has been moved to 2024 after a disagreement between board members on the length of a 1% sales tax to fund “mass transit services as well as traditional transportation options, including resurfacing.”
Currently, Cobb County has one mass transit program, CobbLinc, a bus system that services the entire county and has routes into midtown Atlanta. According to their website, CobbLinc’s transit system includes two transfer centers in Marietta and Cumberland, three Express routes, nine Local routes, two free Circulator routes and three FLEX zones. There is also a stop at KSU.
