ATLANTA -- For the first time in more than six decades, this traffic-choked Southern city expects to see streetcars rumbling once more along its downtown streets.
For some Atlantans, the city's $72 million streetcar project -- funded largely with a Department of Transportation grant awarded in October -- is reason to celebrate and a welcome throwback to a time when a trip across town meant riding the rails.
But not everyone is on board.
Once completed in 2013, the 2.6-mile rail line will cater to tourists, connecting downtown's Centennial Olympic Park -- home to a Coca-Cola museum and the Georgia Aquarium -- to the popular, but less-centrally located Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.
Critics, however, note that the rail loop will do little to alleviate traffic in a metro area burdened with the nation's third-worst commute, according to a February analysis by Forbes magazine.
