Atlanta City Council Supports $3.5 Billion Beltline Light Rail Plan

en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Atlanta City Council passed a resolution by a vote of 14 to 0, formally supporting the construction of a light rail system along the full 22-mile length of the Atlanta Beltline. The resolution calls for the office of Mayor Andre Dickens, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), Atlanta Beltline Inc., and relevant municipal departments to jointly develop project implementation and financing plans, and to submit a progress report to the City Council by January 26, 2027.

On September 3, Atlanta Beltline released the final recommendations of the Beltline Transit Study, which took three and a half years to complete. The plan proposes building a high-capacity light rail system along the 22-mile Beltline corridor, with a planning-level capital cost of approximately $3.5 billion in 2025 dollars. The next phase of the project requires continued advancement of financing, design, and engineering work; at this stage, the $3.5 billion remains a planning estimate and is not the final construction contract amount.

The current proposal includes three routes—the Beltline Loop, Northern Loop, and Southern Loop—connected to downtown Atlanta via spur lines. The plan includes 13 stations, with approximately 18.5 hours of bi-directional service per day, and some overlapping segments are planned to achieve headways of approximately 10 minutes. Based on the Federal Transit Administration's ridership model, the study estimates annual ridership of approximately 4.2 million trips once the system is built.

The resolution also supports the use of existing transit corridors in segments where conditions allow, as well as designs such as grass tracks. The Atlanta City Council requires the relevant agencies to develop a unified plan regarding route phasing, funding sources, implementation sequence, and subsequent construction pathways before submitting it to the City Council for review. At this stage, it has not yet been determined which segment will be prioritized for construction.

The project had previously slowed down. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens withdrew his support last year for the Eastside Beltline streetcar extension plan, and the related rail project subsequently entered reassessment. The resolution passed by the City Council reaffirms support for the full 22-mile Beltline light rail corridor, but whether it can proceed to construction still depends on the funding plan, further design work, and implementation arrangements by MARTA and other agencies.