Gold Line (MARTA)

Gold Line
A Gold Line train on the viaduct north of Arts Center station
Overview
Status	Operational
Locale	Atlanta, Georgia
Termini	Doraville (northeast) Airport (south)
Stations	18 (4 Northeast, 6 North, Five Points, 7 South)
Service
Type	Rapid transit
System	MARTA rail
Operator(s)	MARTA
Rolling stock	See MARTA rail#Rolling stock
History
Opened	1981
Technical
Character	at grade, elevated, underground
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	Third rail, 750 V DC
Route map Gold Line highlighted in gold  Red  N11 North Springs N10 Sandy Springs N9 Dunwoody I-285 N8 Medical Center N7 Buckhead  Gold  NE10 Doraville NE9 Chamblee NE8 Brookhaven/​Oglethorpe NE7 Lenox SR 400 N6 Lindbergh Center Armour Yard Armour Yards I-85 N5 Arts Center N4 Midtown N3 North Avenue N2 Civic Center N1 Peachtree Center Atlanta Streetcar 0 Five Points Blue Green S1 Garnett I-20 S2 West End Murphy Crossing S3 Oakland City S4 Lakewood/​Fort McPherson S5 East Point S6 College Park South Yard & Shops I-85 Red Gold S7 Airport Key Red Line Gold Line Red/Gold Blue/Green Yard tracks All stations are accessible

The Gold Line is a rapid transit line in the MARTA rail system. It operates between Doraville and Airport stations, running through Doraville, Chamblee, Brookhaven, Atlanta, East Point and College Park.

History

What is now the Gold and Red Lines' shared section was originally opened on December 4, 1981, as the North-South Line between Garnett and North Avenue. On September 11, 1982, an infill station at Peachtree Center opened, while the North-South Line was extended south by one stop to West End station. On December 18 the same year, the North-South Line was extended northward to Midtown and Arts Center. On December 15, 1984, the Lakewood/​Fort McPherson, Oakland City, Lindbergh Center, Lenox, and Brookhaven (now Brookhaven/​Oglethorpe) stations all opened, with the last two being the first stations on what would become the Gold Line branch. East Point station opened on August 16, 1986, followed by Chamblee on December 19, 1987, and the College Park and Airport on June 18, 1988. The newest and northermost station on the line, Doraville, opened on December 29, 1992.

On June 8, 1996, MARTA added a new branch of the North-South Line, with stations at Buckhead, Medical Center, and Dunwoody. To distinguish the two lines, the line to Dunwoody assumed the North-South Rail Line name, while the line to Doraville became the Northeast-South Rail Line (sometimes known as the Northeast Line for short). However, both the North-South Line and the Northeast Line continued to be colored on maps in orange as a single North-South Rail Line until December 2006, when the North-South Line began to be colored as red, and the Northeast Line as orange.

In October 2009, MARTA introduced a color-coded system of naming rail lines, with the Northeast Line being renamed to the Yellow Line, and the color orange falling out of use. The Yellow Line name would remain in use until February 2010, when, due to the "Yellow Line" name being controversial among the large Asian-American community along the line, it was renamed to the Gold Line.

Now known as the Gold Line, it shares trackage with its counterpart, the Red Line, between the Airport and just north of the Lindbergh Center.

Future

On March 25, 2024, Andre Dickens, the mayor of Atlanta, announced plans for four new infill stations on the MARTA rail network, with one of them, Murphy Crossing, being a station on the Red and Gold Lines' shared section. Murphy Crossing will be on the west side of the Atlanta Beltline. On April 11, Dickens announced that another one of the four proposed stations will also be shared by the Red and Gold Lines: namely, Armour Yards, located near the similarly-named Armour Yard.

Line description

The Gold Line runs above ground, at grade and below ground in various portions of its route. It begins at the northeastern terminus, Doraville station in Doraville. The nonrevenue tracks extend northeastward from the station north of I-285. It then goes southwestward paralleling Peachtree Road in DeKalb County. Upon entering Atlanta in Buckhead, it crosses over the Red Line in the median of GA 400 before joining the Red Line, going southwest paralleling I-85. It turns south through Midtown and enters downtown Atlanta, where it meets the Blue and Green Lines at Five Points station. Leaving downtown, the Gold Line continues south, paralleling Lee Street and Main Street into East Point and College Park before reaching its terminus at the Airport station.

Naming controversy

When the color-based name change was proposed, it was the Yellow Line at first. However, in February 2010, the name was revised to Gold in order to address a concern among the Asian-American residents along the rail corridor. The section of the Gold Line that is not shared by the Red Line has a significant number of Asian-American residents, to whom the term "yellow" is considered racist. Despite the color name change, interestingly many MARTA system maps denoted the Gold Line with the yellow color still until 2017.

Stations

listed from northeast to south

Station	Code	Opened	Rail Line Transfer
Doraville	NE10	December 29, 1992
Chamblee	NE9	December 19, 1987
Brookhaven/Oglethorpe	NE8	December 15, 1984
Lenox	NE7
Lindbergh Center	N6		Red
Arts Center	N5	December 18, 1982	Red
Midtown	N4		Red
North Avenue	N3	December 4, 1981	Red
Civic Center	N2		Red
Peachtree Center	N1	September 11, 1982	Red  Streetcar
Five Points		December 4, 1981	Blue  Green  Red
Garnett	S1		Red
West End	S2	September 11, 1982	Red
Oakland City	S3	December 15, 1984	Red
Lakewood/Fort McPherson	S4		Red
East Point	S5	August 16, 1986	Red
College Park	S6	June 18, 1988.	Red
Airport	S7		Red

External links

Template:Attached KML/Gold Line (MARTA)

KML is from Wikidata

• Gold Line overview
• Gold Line schedule