Will plans for new MARTA stations derail the BeltLine streetcar project?

ATLANTA - MARTA’s top official has revealed more about the surprise plans announced this week to build four new train stations. 

At Wednesday’s city council transportation committee meeting, MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood emphasized that the proposed stops would not be an alternative to the controversial BeltLine streetcar project. 

The city wants MARTA to build the four stops on existing tracks, but it hasn’t decided exactly where. 

One potential stop, Murphy Crossing in Oakland City, would intersect the BeltLine on the Red and Gold lines. 

"We’re progressing on both projects," Greenwood said. "We have a lot of work underway with the streetcars and although the infilled stations are in their infancy in terms of real pen to paper, we are progressing on that." 

Mayor Andre Dickens announced the stops at his State of the City address on Monday. However, he did not make mention of the streetcars. 

"I think it’s wonderful because you have a lot more people that are living around the BeltLine," said Tayyeba Steele-Hassan, an Atlanta resident who walks on the BeltLine a lot. 

However, she thinks the Atlanta Streetcar expansion would be a waste of money and underutilized. 

Ultimately, both proposals are years away from possibly coming to fruition. 

Greenwood did not have a firm timeline for the new stations. 

"There’s a lot of financial analysis that has to happen, a lot of scope analysis that has to happen."