ATLANTA — MARTA will officially break ground Thursday morning on the Summerhill bus rapid transit (BRT) line.
The transit agency has favored BRT for several recent expansion developments as a quicker and cheaper way of delivering new transportation lines.
Plans are in place for further BRT routes along Campbellton Road and through the Clifton Corridor, which would connect the Lindbergh heavy rail station and Decatur through the busy Emory and CDC areas.
The idea for BRT is fairly simple - it functions like a rail line, with dedicated lanes and station platforms. The Summerhill BRT station map can be found here.
MARTA has generally argued BRT provides a quicker path to project completion, and at far less cost, than light rail systems while largely replicating most of the advantages of light rail.
During debate last year over the Campbellton Road project, MARTA CEO and General Manager Collie Greenwood described BRT as a "gold standard" system that comes "complete with stations, platform-level entry at both doors, and dedicated lanes, very much like a rail system, but at a lower cost and with a faster construction completion time."
The five-mile Summerhill route will service from Downtown along Hank Aaron Drive to the southside BeltLine, with stops at Carver, Peoplestown, Ormond Street, Summerhill, Convocation Center and Capitol Gateway before lopping through Downtown. The BRT line will have heavy rail connectivity at the Five Points, Georgia State and Garnett stations.
"The high-capacity transit line will have new electric buses and operate in 85 percent dedicated lanes with transit signal priority. Fourteen BRT stations along the route will feature off-board fare collection so you can pay before you board, real-time service information, and level boarding, along with other amenities consistent with rail stations," a MARTA release stated.
The Summerhill BRT line is the first of the More MARTA projects that transit leaders have been facing pressure to make progress on.
According to a release, the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday runs from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the corner of Hank Aaron Drive and Georgia Avenue.
“We are excited to celebrate this milestone in the More MARTA Atlanta Program and get started building the region’s first BRT line in this vital city corridor,” Greenwood said in a statement. “This line will provide an efficient connection between historic city neighborhoods, job centers, Georgia State, and our rail system, and will be the benchmark for future BRT lines in metro Atlanta.”