Ashby is an underground metro station

Metro station

A metro station or subway station is a railway station for a rapid transit system, often known by names such as "metro", "underground" and "subway". It is often underground or elevated. At crossings of metro lines, they are multi-level....

 on the Blue

Blue Line (MARTA)

The Blue Line is a rapid transit line in the MARTA rail system. It operates between Hamilton E. Holmes and Indian Creek stations, running through Atlanta, Decatur and portions of unincorporated DeKalb County....

 and Green

Green Line (MARTA)

The Green Line is a rapid transit line in the MARTA rail system. It operates between Bankhead and Edgewood/Candler Park stations, running exclusively inside the Atlanta city limits....

 lines of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority

Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...

 (MARTA) rail system.

The area it serves was an important mini-downtown from the 1880s until the 1950s, centered on West Hunter St. (now Martin Luther King Drive) and Ashby St. (now Joseph E. Lowery Boulevard). As of 2006, the area surrounding the station is being redeveloped

Redevelopment

Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...

, sporting two family-owned diner

Diner

A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...

s and a short walk to the campus of the Atlanta University Center

Atlanta University Center

The Atlanta University Center Consortium is the largest contiguous consortium of African Americans in higher education in the United States. The center consists of four historically black colleges and universities in southwest Atlanta, Georgia...

 campus. Condominium

Condominium

A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...

s and a shopping area are under construction adjacent to the station.

Renaming proposals

In 2007 Ashby was proposed to be renamed after Joseph E. Lowery, i.e. the current name of Ashby Street, while a different proposal by councilman Ivory Lee Young, Jr. suggested changing it to Historic Westside Village station, after the mixed-use development adjacent to the station.