Beltline reveals 5 options for connecting trail, transit to MARTA rail

More than two and ½ years after Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens promised four new MARTA rail stations across this growing city, plans are coming into clearer focus for where the first one will be located and how it might look and function. 

How the complex, infill transit station would be paid for and when its construction might start, however, remains to be seen. 

The proposed infill station at Murphy Crossing—a vacant, 20-acre industrial site that’s set to be redeveloped as housing and commercial properties—would mark the first instance of direct connectivity between MARTA rail and the Beltline’s 22-mile loop at any point across the city. 

Last month, Beltline leadership unveiled the results of a three-and-1/2-year transit study that showed a light-rail station also being built in the area, as part of a $3.5-billion loop. Murphy Crossing has been deemed a logical first connecting point for the two transit systems. 

A Thursday update meeting on the MARTA infill transit hub provided the first official visuals for how the project could work where neighborhoods Adair Park, West End, and Oakland City meet, next to the Lee + White district. 

According to Shaun Green, the Beltline’s principal engineer, seven alternatives had been studied for the infill station but two have been deemed unfeasible and eliminated, leaving five options. The Beltline is handling the preliminary scoping study because, unlike MARTA, it has the budget to do so, per Green. The study is expected to cost around $800,000 or $900,000, as covered by Tax Allocation District dollars, he said. 

The goal is to complete concepts and cost analyses and pick a locally preferred alternative (or alternatives) for the infill station by next summer at the latest, laying the groundwork for funding efforts and construction, according to Green. 

Each of the five infill station options has attributes and potential hangups. 

All of them, according to Green, would be complex, given the 60-foot vertical gap between the Beltline and MARTA rail—and the fact that anything built would have to be 23 and ½ feet, at least, above freight trains that also run on tracks through the area, per CSX and Norfolk Southern’s regulations. 

“We want better connectivity between all the different modes of transit… to make it as seamless as possible from a transfer perspective,” Green told meeting attendees. “There’s a ton of growth more likely than not coming to Southwest Atlanta, and it’s going to be fantastic.” 

Key differences in the five remaining infill options hinge on where platforms would be placed, disruptions to current service, and walking distances from the Beltline below.  

“We’re talking about ideas here. We’re not talking about implementation—however frustrating that might be,” Green said. “There’s a ton of complexity to this. About the only mode [of transit] not represented is canoe; thank God we don’t have to deal with water here.”

A public “virtual open house” question and comment period is open until Nov. 30 for chiming in online. Citizen feedback, according to Green, will be combined with the Beltline’s qualitative analysis to determine which infill station option moves forward. 

Below is a quick summary of the five infill options for a new station between MARTA’s Oakland City and West End transit hubs, as they stand today: 

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Murphy Crossing momentum 

Thursday’s meeting also provided a glimpse at where the long-planned, adaptive-reuse overhaul of the Beltline-owned Murphy Crossing property stands. 

Andrea Foard, Beltline senior development manager, said Atlantans should start finally seeing demolition at the historic but vacant 20-acre property before the end of this year, now that civil engineering work has been completed, a contractor selected, and state-level reviews achieved.  

Design work for the adaptive-reuse portion of phase one at Murphy Crossing and a 1.4-acre stormwater park with Beltline connectivity are also slated to move forward in the fourth quarter, per Foard. 

“A lot of behind-the-scenes work [is ongoing] now for phase one,” she noted.

Beltline officials expect most demolition to be finished in the first quarter of 2027, followed by permitting work and the renovation of existing buildings into commercial and office space, including a recognizable, curved structure fronting the Beltline.  

The majority of buildings onsite now will be razed, according to site plans. 

Spread across five phases, the full buildout of Murphy Crossing now calls for: 625 residential units, including apartments and townhomes, both for-sale and rentals; roughly 82,000 square feet of commercial space such as offices; 70,000 square feet of retail; and a substantial section, 103,000 square feet, devoted to light industrial uses, officials have said. 

The Murphy Crossing site in Oakland City has struggled for years to find its redevelopment footing as Beltline leadership has nixed deals with two outside development teams. 

Beltline mapping and marketing, it should be noted, calls for the Westside Trail to be permanently renamed the Southwest Trail in the area. 

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