Add one more bump in the road for
the Atlanta streetcar: Ridership has plummeted in each of the first three
months of 2016 to the lowest levels since the troubled, $98 million project
launched 15 months ago.
The city instituted a $1 fare for
the 2.7-mile loop on Jan. 1. Since then, ridership during the first quarter is
down 48 percent over the same time period in 2015.
Ridership is just the latest problem
for the streetcar, but it is particularly staggering in January and March,
which fell 62 percent from the same two months last year.
A spokeswoman for Mayor Kasim Reed
said the 2016 ridership numbers are “in line with the city’s expectations after
the Atlanta Streetcar went from free fares to charging $1 per ride.” She also
said the mayor expects ridership to “steadily increase over time.”
But Marc Scribner, who tracks
streetcar projects across the country as a research fellow at the Competitive
Enterprise Institute, called Atlanta’s drop in ridership “exceptional.” The Competitive
Enterprise Institute is a non-profit libertarian think tank, and Scribner said
he generally opposes streetcar projects because of their high capital costs,
fixed routes and slow speeds.
“You often see ridership stagnate …
and you’ll see some decline when fares come online,” Scribner said. “But that’s
a pretty exceptional drop and is something that should concern them. If that’s
what you get after adding a dollar [fare], it’s not good.”
The inaugural year of operations featured turnover of nearly all of the system’s top
managers; confusion over whether the city or MARTA was calling the shots; scathing safety audits, and unreliable service from a host of equipment failures —
all of which led to harsh criticism from federal authorities, which funded
about half of the construction costs.
Melissa Mullinax, senior advisor to
Reed, acknowledged that the problems — and resulting media coverage — probably
had an impact in ridership, but “we’ve turned that around.” She also said the
streetcar has been a successful economic development tool and in bridging
downtown areas divided by the interstate.
The trains run from Centennial
Olympic Park to the King Historic District, but the city has ambitious plans to
grow the system to include more than 50 miles of tracks at a estimated cost of
$5 billion. Getting operational problems under control and
increasing ridership are key issues necessary to
secure future federal grants for the expansion.
And while the city claims at least
$1.5 billion worth of investment related to the streetcar, an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis found that several of those projects were conceived
before the route was identified in 2008.
Those projects include Georgia State
University’s $60 million renovation of the former SunTrust Bank building and
its $83 million College of Law; the Georgia Aquarium’s $110 million dolphin
exhibit; the $70 million National Center for Civil and Human Rights; and the
$67 million College Football Hall of Fame.
‘This is a long-term play’
Still, A.J. Robinson, president of
the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District which is an investor in the
streetcar, said the project has been a tremendous boon for downtown, and that
it is unfair to judge it after a little more than a year. He said officials are
working on new technology, improved marketing and retooled operations — all of
which, he said, should improve ridership.
“Our whole motivation is: how can we
reconnect the neighborhoods of the city, starting with downtown, in a way that
speaks to what we believe is the future lifestyle of city residents,” Robinson
said. “Urbanization needs to be nurtured with the right infrastructure. This is
a long-term play.”
Still, the short-term drop in
ridership is concerning to to Yolanda Adrean, chairwoman of the Atlanta city
council’s Transportation Committee, who called the 2016 ridership numbers
“discouraging” and said that the decline “doesn’t meet the expectations that
have been presented to council.”
But Adrean’s more pressing concern
is whether the city should be in charge of streetcar operations.
“I think we need to have a hard
conversation about how we move forward with the streetcar and who should be the
operator,” Adrean said.
The mayor’s office is considering
whether to outsource streetcar operations to a private company, and has
contracted with an outside vender to provide management services and consulting
since last fall.
Another issue: the 91,373 rides so
far in 2016 have raised $45,186, according to the mayor’s office. It is unclear
what is causing the discrepancy between fare box revenue and the number of
rides.
Georgia Senate Minority Whip Vincent
Fort, who is considering a run for mayor in 2017, filed unsuccessful legislation this year that would have forced the city to hand over
streetcar operations to MARTA. He said streetcar success is important for the
larger issue of transit throughout the city, and ridership numbers are
important.
“In addition to the fare, you have
these problems and what amounts to mismanagement,” Fort said. “The riders and
potential riders know it as well. We’re at a critical juncture with mass
transit in the city. There is a MARTA referendum coming up, and there are
issues with the Beltline as far as how the transit part of it is going to be
financed.
“So ridership going down
precipitously is a cause of concern for me.”
Go here to
watch a video of people answering the question: Is it worth a dollar to ride
the streetcar?
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/atlanta-streetcar-ridership-takes-a-plunge-in-2016/nq9TB/##
Comments
The
Streetcar is a tourist attraction without any tourists. We could drive to the
Aquarium and park in the deck and take the Streetcar to see the College
football hall of fame, but it’s mostly riding 2.7 miles around city streets.
Atlanta needs to stick to basics and stop getting caught up in failed tourist
venue and CID development. Most of these
projects have failed and this one is no exception. These developments don’t
have enough customers to succeed.
Underground failed followed by a parade of other failures. Now we have
empty MARTA buses, empty MARTA train cars empty Streetcars and we will have an
empty Braves Stadium.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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