Plans for Possible Cumberland Transit Revealed

A glimpse into the possible future of the Cumberland area was given last Thursday, as the idea of a rail transit system being built there was discussed and shown in detail at the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.

According to Tom Boland, Director of Planning for the Cumberland Community Improvement District (CCID), the consulting team HDR had been commissioned by Cobb County and the CCID to come up with a plan for a rail transit system around the Cumberland Boulevard area. An image of the overall plan provided by HDR shows the rail to the south of the Cobb Galleria Centre and then running west along side it up toward Smyrna.

The HDR team, led David Taylor, Director of Sustainable Transportation Solutions at HDR, met for several days as part of the “Cumberland Transit Oriented Development Study” to come up with the plan they presented last week. Nothing in the plan is set in stone and Taylor made sure to note that the team welcomed feedback from citizens who were in attendance.

“Everything is still in the conceptual level,” Taylor said. “The question was, ‘can we cast a big vision that we can take to another level of analyses?’”

The main purpose of the rail transit system, Taylor explained is to create an environment that encourages walking between destinations. In addition to the transit, the goal of Taylor’s team was to develop a walkable street grid, creating five to ten minute walks to anywhere in the area.

“You don’t have a walking environment, but we are moving in that direction,” Taylor said.

HDR Transportation Planner Dan Nelson later said that the goal would be something similar to Atlantic Station, which is located about 15 minutes south from Cumberland in Atlanta.

Having a rail transit and a “walking environment” would benefit the area in numerous ways, Taylor said, including improving jobs and the housing imbalance in the area, as well as decreasing greenhouse emissions.

A transit brings two to three times more growth to an area than one without it. The similar Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system in Dallas, Texas has been a great success, bringing in 3.3-billion dollars worth of revenue near the rail stations, he said.

“It’s a great time to be planning for the up-market,” Taylor said.

While no figures were given at the meeting as to how much the project might cost, Taylor said the team was careful to meet Federal guidelines to hopefully be able to secure as much money from government resources as possible.

As for what the stations will look like, Taylor said that they would not resemble the large MARTA stations seen in Atlanta. The Cumberland stations would only include basic amenities, along with ticketing and shelter.

Taylor also hopes to include the current bus system in the plans, saying that a transit increases the amount of people willing to hop on a bus to complete their journey. The team had actually considered developing plans for a bus rapid transit, though; Taylor said that system is not as effective as the rail.

 “The jury is really out on it right now.”