Advocacy group questions Atlanta’s decision to close Streetcar during championship game
Urban advocacy group ThreadATL is questioning the city of Atlanta’s decision to close the Streetcar for the National Championship Game on Jan. 8.
The city on Jan. 5 announced that service for the entire streetcar would be suspended part of the day on Sunday and Monday.
A press release from the city says, “As a result of the street closures at Centennial Olympic Park Drive at Andrew Young International Boulevard and Luckie Street, [Atlanta Streetcar] will suspend service on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2018, from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Monday, Jan. 8, 2018 from 12 p.m. to 11 p.m.”
The city said the closure is related to security for the event.
“The city of Atlanta made the decision to suspend service after noon on Monday for safety and security reasons,” a spokesperson for the city says. “[The Atlanta Police Department] has established secure zones around Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Centennial Olympic Park, which overlaps with the Streetcar route. Ensuring the safety of the public and security for this event are the top priorities. The city of Atlanta has been closely engaged with planning for this event for more than a year.”
“The streetcar was designed specifically to meet the needs of big events, something that’s spelled out in the TIGER grant application,” he wrote, adding, “This is beyond mere frustration with bad planning. In light of this language from the TIGER document, the city is obviously failing to follow through on the goals of the streetcar — the very goals that garnered millions of dollars in federal funding for the buildout.”
He noted the city has also shut down the Streetcar on New Year’s Eve and for other big events in the city.
“These events are times when people could actually make use of a streetcar that runs fairly empty most of the time,” Givens wrote. “This is a wasted chance to make it useful, and a wasted chance to follow through on our city leaders’ various calls for Atlanta to become a more transit-oriented place.”
The city spokesperson did not respond to a request for a comment on the ThreadATL post.
To read the full ThreadATL post, click here.
