BeltLine Rail Now

ABI's final citywide meeting on Beltline transit (IN PERSON) is happening this Thursday September 3rd, 6:30PM, Lee + White! Join execs and staffers from ABI as they present the results of their 3-year 3.5 million dollar Beltline Transit Study. Spoiler Alert! We expect it to include 22 miles of light rail along the Beltline as well as Streetcar West through AUC to the Beltline.

Your comment is important! On what they'll show as well as the hard questions: what is next and whom do we hold accountable for delivering that?

This IMPORTANT public meeting is capped at 300 participants and registration is required. The link is in our linktree in our bio! If the in-person meeting is full you can attend AND comment virtually, RSVP required there. Follow https://bit.ly/ABI-light-rail-plan to the in person meeting then to ABI Events.

Dude, Where's My Streetcar?!?!? Nearly 10 years into the More MARTA program, lots of folks want to know!

It's an election year here in GA for State level offices!

What has that got to do with Beltline rail? Potentially a lot. The state could take a larger role in funding transit, but Georgia hasn't. Matthewos Samson wants to see Beltline rail happen. He's a candidate for State House District 58, which includes much of Atlanta's SW, Downtown, and NE core neighborhoods.

Join Wednesday's virtual meeting sponsored by DSA Atlanta. RSVP is mandatory. Register here: https://actionnetwork.org/events/dude-wheres-my-streetcar-state-of-the-rail?source=calendar

As summer comes to a close, the 2-day Summer Shade Festival in Grant Park this weekend is the perfect way to celebrate. Want to know what you can do to let leaders know you support Beltline rail? Want to know more about the project? Join us at our booth for the one of the biggest festivals of the summer.

Signup at https://bit.ly/4gghPqL-brn-summershade26

☀️ Join us next weekend - less than a week away!
�🗓 August 22-23, 11am–6pm
📍 Northeast section of Grant Park, close to the MLK Marta station and Beltline
🎶 Lots of live music, drinks, amazing food, kid activities, and even some wrestling!!�

Having post-World Cup blues? Missing the MARTA rail service we had for five weeks during World Cup? The City's only social all-transit conversation is back for summer '26. Join us in Summerhill this Thursday as we cap two years of Let's Talk Transit and look forward to a 3rd.

Special guests from MARTA Carolina Ramos and Greg Guiffrida will give us the stats on how MARTA did during World Cup- more than just the doubled ridership- and Courtney English- Chief of Staff to the Mayor- will share his thoughts on how MARTA and the City worked together during the 5 weeks of the largest soccer sporting tournament that was based right here in the ATL.

Light bites and drinks are served, and we'll have a raffle with MARTA merch to help fund our future meetings!

Please register at https://bit.ly/4yGpsix-letstalktransit-Jul2026. Let's Talk Transit is a co-production of MARTA Army, Beltline Rail Now and the Sierra Club GA Chapter.

Take MARTA'S new Rapid A BRT from Five Points MARTA to Georgia Ave and walk east to Wood's Chapel BBQ!

At the Ice Cream Festival this past weekend, we saw a whole new group of folks stop by the table to find out more about Beltline rail. Many, learning that the project has been stalled by the Mayor, took the opportunity to write him and express their support for the light rail project connecting 45 neighborhoods on the Beltline and to MARTA, urging Mayor Dickens to bring the project off pause.

It's always a kick for us as volunteers to see someone for the first time who had no idea about the project understand and embrace its connective, inclusive and access-spreading nature. It's as if the lights come on, and they get it, in the moment, and can't believe we haven't built Beltline rail yet.

Piedmont Park, home to the Festival, would have 3 stops on Beltline rail, one near the Great Lawn, one at Amsterdam Walk, where sadly 1,200 parking spaces are going to provide the access, and at the new front door to the Botanical Garden near Piedmont Rd.

Getting us out of our cars and into transit is an idea that may be almost as non-controversial as ice cream.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made our table possible and to all who stopped by to find out more or to write a card.

It's time for Ice Cream! Join us this Saturday in Piedmont Park for the annual Ice Cream Festival. We'll have a table with the latest on Beltline rail and what we're doing to stop the pause. Did you know that Piedmont Park is the site of 3 planned Beltline rail stops?

Want to help? We can use more volunteers at each of three shifts. See Signup Genius https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0A4FADA62DA7F9CE9-64720843-icecream #/ where you can register. And we promise you at least one ice cream break during your service. 🍦🍦

Today marks 3 years since the MARTA Board, led by Chair Thomas Worthy, voted unanimously to advance Beltline rail via Streetcar east, funding the final design and a construction timeline that will lead to Beltline rail opening in 2026.

For years, supporters have consistently asked us two questions: Why are powerful people against Beltline rail? And who is behind the effort to stop it? How did our Mayor Andre Dickens go in such a short time from being Beltline rail’s biggest champion- and our would-be “Transit Mayor”- to a lynch pin of the opposition, stalling its progress for years and casting doubt on its future?

Beep Throat is a brand-new exposé website that pulls back the veil on that timeline and the personalities who orchestrated a subversion of Atlanta Beltline Inc.’s mission and the undermining of a voter-approved referendum that has collected more than $800M in our taxpayer dollars.

Voters overwhelmingly passed the More MARTA referendum in 2016, choosing to tax themselves for 40 years to fund Beltline rail and other transit expansion projects within the city of Atlanta.

Over two years, from 2023 to 2025, an elite and well-connected group worked behind the scenes (and directly engaged with Mayor Dickens and the public) to derail the first segment of Beltline rail, the Streetcar East Extension to Ponce City Market. That segment was already in final design and, had work continued, would have been poised to enter service in 2026.

So what can we say about all of this? A lot.

One thing is clear: Mayor Dickens folded quickly. After nearly a decade spent advancing Beltline rail, including Streetcar East, the Mayor, in a matter of weeks in 2023, subtly backed away from that support, seeking an explanation he could give the public that would not come for nearly two more years. It wasn’t about the money; it wasn’t about feasibility; it wasn’t about MARTA or its abilities. It wasn’t about the widespread value Beltline rail would bring to all. It was about a small group of influential people who wanted the Mayor to stop.

And he did.

Read more from beep throat at beepthroat.com and on https://beltlinerailnow.com/news/2026/7/14/a-constant-restart

BRN Friday night socials are back- so join us rain or shine at Wild Heaven South on The Beltline! It's at Lee + White- MARTA West End plus Spoke Shuttle or walk (15 minutes). Lots to talk about and catch up on during the home stretch of World Cup and transit politics!