Atlanta Streetcar

Atlanta Streetcar

A streetcar in service near the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
Overview
Owner	City of Atlanta, Atlanta Downtown Improvement District
Locale	Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Transit type	Streetcar
Number of lines	1
Number of stations	12
Daily ridership	700 (Q1 2016)
Operation
Began operation	December 30, 2014; 2 years ago (2014-12-30)
Operator(s)	Atlanta Streetcar
Character	Street running
Number of vehicles	4 Siemens S70s
Train length	1 car
Headway	15 minutes (planned avg.)
Technical
System length	2.7 mi (4.3 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Electrification	Overhead wires
Route diagram Centennial Olympic Park Carnegie at Spring Luckie at Cone Peachtree Center MARTA Woodruff Park Park Place Hurt Park Auburn at Piedmont Sweet Auburn Market I‑75 / I‑85 (Downtown Connector) Dobbs Plaza Edgewood at Hilliard King Historic District This diagram:

Atlanta Streetcar, or simply the Downtown Loop, is a streetcar line in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.

The Downtown Loop is the Phase 1 of the Atlanta Streetcar project, which is planning to expand onto the BeltLine surrounding central Atlanta. It was planned to start service in late spring of 2014, but was delayed. Testing on the line began in summer 2014 with passenger service beginning as scheduled on December 30, 2014.

The project is the first regular passenger streetcar service in Atlanta since the original Atlanta streetcars were phased out in 1949.

The Downtown Loop runs 2.7 miles (4.3 km) east-west, serving 12 stops, from Centennial Olympic Park to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, with tracks that converge at Woodruff Park. The route provides access to MARTA heavy rail lines at Peachtree Center. The vehicle maintenance facility is located under the I-75/I-85 overpass on Edgewood Ave.

The exact route is:

The Atlanta Streetcar system uses Siemens S70 light rail vehicles (LRVs). A total of four S70 cars were purchased and were built at two different facilities; the cars themselves were built in a in Sacramento, California while most other major components, like the propulsion system, were assembled at a plant about 30 miles north of Atlanta, in Alpharetta. They were delivered in the first months of 2014 and are numbered 1001–1004.

Atlanta Streetcar, Inc. (ASC) is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 with the mission to bring streetcars back to downtown Atlanta. ASC's board members include the leaders of Georgia Tech and Georgia State University, MARTA, Georgia World Congress Center, Buckhead Community Improvement District, Buckhead Coalition, Underground Atlanta, Central Atlanta Progress, Woodruff Arts Center, and many local corporate business leaders as well.