Clifton Corridor rail line crossing Old Briarcliff Way

The Clifton Corridor is a proposed public transportation corridor in and near

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, roughly connecting the

Buckhead Buckhead is the uptown commercial and residential district of the city of Atlanta, Georgia, comprising approximately the northernmost fifth of the city. Buckhead is the third largest business district within the Atlanta city limits, behind Downt ...

Emory University Emory University is a private research university in Atlanta, Georgia. Founded in 1836 as "Emory College" by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory, Emory is the second-oldest private institution of ...

, and Decatur areas.

Proposed route

The proposed route stretches from: * Lindbergh Center at the southern end of Buckhead * Eastwards following the existing

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

rail corridor * Stations near the

CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency, under the Department of Health and Human Services, and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgi ...

and

Veterans Administration The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers and ...

campus * Possible continuation along the northern edge of Decatur via Suburban Plaza on N. Decatur Rd. * Terminus at the Avondale MARTA station MARTA selected light rail as the preferred mode for the corridor in 2012. Emory strongly supports rapid transit in the corridor.

History

A local rail service along the Clifton Corridor was envisioned as early as 1961, when the line was included on maps for a potential regional transportation system. In March 2012, after considering bus, light rail and heavy rail rapid-transit options, MARTA recommended a light rail option."Light Rail Recommended in Emory, CDC Area", ''Patch'', March 22, 2012
/ref> In Summer 2012, there was a referendum on a 1-cent sales tax (

SPLOST A special-purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) is a financing method for funding capital outlay projects in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is an optional 1% sales tax levied by any county for the purpose of funding the building of parks, school ...

) to fund traffic and road improvements. If approved, the tax would have provided $700 million to fund rapid transit along the Clifton Corridor. The measure was defeated by voters. By the summer of 2018, MARTA updated the Clifton Corridor fact sheet with Alternative 6 shown as the selected routing split into two phases. At that time, MARTA estimated construction of first phase from Lindburgh to North Decatur / Clairmont to begin in 2022 and be complete and operational by 2026. The initial segment was estimated to cost between $900 million to $1.3 billion, with build-out of the full line running $1.8–2.1 billion. However, as of January 2022 MARTA has not yet allocated funding for construction, which prevents the

Federal Transit Administration The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is an agency within the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) that provides financial and technical assistance to local public transportation systems. The FTA is one of ten modal administration ...

from allocating matching funds. By February 2023, MARTA had eliminated the light rail option and was proceeding to plan a bus rapid transit line along the corridor.

Stations

MARTA proposes stations at: * Lindbergh Center * Cheshire Bridge Road (near Faulkner Road and the

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* Sage Hill / Briarcliff (near the intersection of

Briarcliff Road Briarcliff most commonly refers to: * Briarcliff Manor, New York, a village in Westchester County ** Briarcliff College, a college in the village that closed in 1977 ** Briarcliff Farms, a dairy farm in the village and Pine Plains from 1890 to 196 ...

, Johnson Road, and Zonolite Road) *

/Emory Conference Center * Emory-Rollins * Andrews Circle * North Decatur / Clairmont * Suburban Plaza * DeKalb Medical Center * Irwin Way * Your Dekalb Farmers Market * Avondale MARTA station

References

External links

MARTA overview
{{coord missing, Georgia (U.S. state) Proposed railway lines in the United States Druid Hills, Georgia Transportation in Atlanta Emory University North Druid Hills, Georgia Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority