Mayor Andre Dickens wants Downtown Atlanta to reclaim the role it was founded on: the place where the region's trains meet. Over the past month, in public remarks and in an exclusive Dec. 12 interview with SaportaReport, the mayor laid out a pair of goals that would pull more transit activity into the core of the city, a new Amtrak station on the Centennial Yards site and a MARTA headquarters within walking distance of Five Points Station.
The rail history matters to his argument. Atlanta took shape in 1837 where three rail lines converged, in the ground now occupied by Centennial Yards, South Downtown and Underground Atlanta. After decades of inactivity, all three areas are busy with development again, and the mayor sees intercity and local rail as part of what comes next.
A new front door for intercity rail
Atlanta's current Amtrak stop is Brookwood Station, which is too small for a metro of this scale and hard for riders with disabilities to use. The city has one intercity passenger train today, the Crescent, running between New York, Washington, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans.
Speaking at the Dec. 2 Atlanta Design Roundtable, Dickens noted that Atlanta lacks the kind of central multimodal station other big cities point to. He said the two leading candidate sites are Centennial Yards and an area farther north near the Georgia World Congress Center, where Norfolk Southern track already runs. His preference is Centennial Yards, which he expects to become the center of sports, entertainment and nightlife activity for both visitors and residents.
The city has already worked with Centennial Yards to reserve rail access and room for a station there. Any final decision, though, runs through negotiations with Norfolk Southern and Amtrak, which has said it wants to add more service out of Atlanta. The Atlanta Regional Commission is studying the best locations, with its findings expected before the ARC board in January 2026. Dickens, who chairs the ARC board, said conversations are underway and that the next move belongs to Amtrak on route and site. He also pointed to possible rail links to Savannah and to cities to the north such as Nashville, and described a station designed from scratch as a welcoming arrival point that would work alongside the rebuilt Five Points MARTA Station.
Bringing MARTA's leadership back to Five Points
The second piece of the vision came after the quarterly meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress. Dickens told the gathered executives and civic leaders that MARTA receives no operating money from Georgia, a fact he said surprised many in the room. MARTA is the largest transit agency in the country without state operating support. The mayor ruled out raising fares, and because the City of Atlanta already contributes more to MARTA than any other jurisdiction, he said the remaining path is to make the regional case to state lawmakers when the legislature convenes in January.
On headquarters, the mayor was direct: he wants MARTA downtown near Five Points, the system's most active station, which is in the middle of a $230 million renovation. MARTA's offices sit at Lindbergh today. According to people familiar with the agency, a move to the Atlanta Financial Center no longer appears to be under consideration, leaving MARTA to either stay where it is or relocate to Two Peachtree, close to Five Points and Underground Atlanta.
Egbert Perry, founder and CEO of the Integral Group and a partner in the Two Peachtree redevelopment, said in a statement that his team supports the mayor's goal of reestablishing Five Points as the region's transportation center and has put forward a competitive proposal to MARTA. A MARTA spokeswoman said the agency is not pursuing a headquarters relocation at this time.
Downtown voices lined up behind the idea. Central Atlanta Progress President A.J. Robinson said he has always favored a downtown MARTA headquarters, calling Five Points the brand of the agency. Underground Atlanta owner Shaneel Lalani said MARTA belongs where its trains still connect, tying the agency's presence to the health of Underground and the city around it.
For earlier coverage of the station search, see Atlanta eyes new downtown Amtrak station. What this column adds is a clearer site preference from the mayor and a direct push to put MARTA's leadership in the same district as its flagship station.
Original reporting by Maria Saporta for SaportaReport.
