# My hypothetical Atlanta Commuter Rail map



## MattW (Apr 15, 2010)

Because I frequently get bored even with a computer in front of me, I decided to make a map showing the hypothetical alignments for an Atlanta commuter rail, and the stations along the alignment.

Here's the link to the map

A couple of things:

Thanks to tearing down the old Union and Terminal stations, I had to almost completely "rebuild" the station tracks and try to fit a headhouse in somewhere. The Atlanta station has 4 tracks and 3 or 5 platforms with complete access from both the East and North/South CSX/NS lines along with a small cleaning/storage yard with 5 storage and 1 through track that can be accessed from the station without having to move onto CSX/NS trackage. The platform tracks were designed for 9 cars long for possible future visits by the Crescent. The headhouse is shoved in between Spring and Forsyth streets to allow a direct walking connection to the Five Points MARTA station. The problem with this station though would be the complete relocation of the World Congress Center/Phillips Arena parking decks/lots.

The Green Line to the East goes to my hometown of Conyers. Why Conyers? In my experience the commute doesn't begin to backup until Lithonia going Westbound so I'm making the assumption that Conyers and Covington don't generate the massive volumes of road traffic to justify an extension and 30 miles from Atlanta is a nice service radius.

The Blue line heads north to Kennesaw up the I-75 corridor, my school is in Marietta, so obviously that's why I've been working on these two lines the most. 

This line also tries to avoid the Inman and Tilford yard complex by going north through Howell junction and through a currently-nonexistent connection.

The Cyan line is a line up the current route of the Crescent to Buford, GA and the I-85 corridor.

The purple line is just a hypothetical more direct route to better serve the I-20 corridor as my green line would turn north at Lithonia and head up to Stone Mountain. It was created to minimize the impact hence its sometimes weird routing.

Small blue lines (or shapes) along the Green and Blue lines are 8-car-length platforms.

I haven't worked on the South and West lines yet as I'm much more familiar with the North and East routes.

Go on, rip away! I've just been working on this when I've been bored and it's nowhere near official and I'm not affiliated with anyone/thing except myself.


----------



## Bill Haithcoat (Apr 15, 2010)

MattW said:


> Because I frequently get bored even with a computer in front of me, I decided to make a map showing the hypothetical alignments for an Atlanta commuter rail, and the stations along the alignment. Here's the link to the map
> 
> A couple of things:
> 
> ...


I am walking out the door to lunch so do not have time to read it well,just yet. But one thought: railroading is a mighty neat hobby to fall back on when bored, right?


----------



## MattW (Apr 15, 2010)

Bill Haithcoat said:


> I am walking out the door to lunch so do not have time to read it well,just yet. But one thought: railroading is a mighty neat hobby to fall back on when bored, right?


Very much so!


----------



## Bill Haithcoat (Apr 15, 2010)

For the northbound I would stop at Cumberland Mall and Town Center.Might go all the way to Cartersville but that could be pushing the definiton of "commuter".

For the West I would try to work in a direct stop at Six Flags.

Nor sure how far south you want to go, like Macon. I think NASCAR is down that way.

Guess you know the line you are on is the old Georgia RR to Augusta.

I would want to work Stone Mountain Park, proper, into it some way. Did you know there is, or at least was, trackage from the main into the park? That was the dinner train which used to run from the GA RR Freight Depot downtown and did encircle the mountain itself. Rocked along very slowly and was about a three hour trip.


----------

