What do you think of MARTA’s fare increase?
Financially-strapped MARTA is raising fares 25 cents to $2.00 starting Thursday. The monthly pass will increase to $60, from $52.50.
Also, parking fees will rise $1 in lots that charge fees. And MARTA is replacing its age requirement for kids to ride free with a maximum height. Starting Thursday, children under 46 inches tall can ride free.
AJC reporter Ariel Hart writes about more of the details.
Will these changes make a difference in your travel plans?
If you ride MARTA, what has been your experience? Has service improved or gotten worse over the past year?
Finally, only Atlanta and Fulton and DeKalb counties help finance MARTA through a 1-cent sales tax. Should other counties contribute?
What about the state? MARTA is the only major transit system in the country that does not receive consistent state funding for its operations. Should legislators change that?
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82 comments Add your comment
TTPB
October 1st, 2009
12:04 pm
I think MARTA is “shooting itself in the foot” by raising fares, and not being held accountable for their mistakes so they will make them AGAIN and the public will have to bale them out AGAIN … like most companies who are haphazardly raising their prices or interest rates. Now would be a good time for some honest, smart, legitimate competition…
Eric
October 1st, 2009
12:08 pm
I buy the monthly card for $60 now. At unlimited rides it is still a good deal. The trains do hold to schedule, however I really wish they didn’t have to reduce train service. Especially at night they now go to off peak service earlier and offpeak is 15 minute intervals for end stations. Plus peak went from 10 minutes to 15.
One of the problems is the state being the only state in the U.S. with a major transit system to not provide funding.
But what really ticks me off is our backwards state legislators who due not serve the citizens. For solely political reasons they blocked passage of legislation that would have allowed MARTA to shift its funds from capital investments to operating costs. In downtimes when sales tax revenues and ridership falls it makes sense to do this. What’s worse is these legislators who blocked this legislation are not from DeKalb and Fulton so its not even their money!!! They are telling us how to spend our own money?
Geez, first the state raised my property taxes by eliminating the state homestead exemption payment, now they are cutting my MARTA service. Way to go Gov and legislators!!! Its not the Feds raising taxes its the State of GA!
Will Never Use Marta Again
October 1st, 2009
12:08 pm
If you like seeing homeless people urinate in front of you and your children, with a Marta police officer standing right next to you. Or if you love having men stand there and rub themselves while watching you. Or the transvestites that think you need to hear about their latest umm adventure. Then the price hike is well worth the entertainment.
And for some it’s cheaper then going to the strip club
WTH?
October 1st, 2009
12:17 pm
It’s the drivers! They sit at the end of their lines running their mouths on the phone or with each other and when you complain about them being late EVERY DAMN DAY! they always give the excuse of traffic!!! And they are some of the rudest drivers who for get we riders are the CUSTOMERS!!! They should be docked for excessive lateness on their routes and they should be formally repremanded (placed in their files not verbally spoken with???? WTH is that going to do) for repeated complaints against them. My complaint is not with just the fare hike it’s service I receive or lack there of from the inconsiderate drivers!!!!
TS
October 1st, 2009
12:21 pm
So now I have to pay $2.00 instead of $1.75 to be accosted on the MARTA. Still sounds like a good deal to me.
Turd Ferguson
October 1st, 2009
12:29 pm
All Marta Employees and riders will spend eternity in HELL and Im happy for them.
urccjss
October 1st, 2009
12:33 pm
Ted Furgeson, MARTA did not invent the lazy, poor, soiled, stupid, homeless and convicts. Without MARTA we still have a general public. Get over yourself already. Public culture is what it is. Some people are so short sighted that they blame MARTA for less than desirable elements being members of the general public. Please explain to me why MARTA is responsible for all the ills in Metro Atlanta. I’m really having a difficult time wrapping my head around that proposition.
urccjss
October 1st, 2009
12:38 pm
Ted, are you that hateful that you would wish that Woodward Academy students, GA Tech students, restaurant workers, hospital workers, conventioneers, Braves fans, Falcon fans, government employees and others go to hell because they take public transportation. I bet you are proud to be a republican. Did you think before you post, or did you think that your post would sound really cute?
JBOO
October 1st, 2009
12:39 pm
I rode MARTA years ago as a teen and was not effected because it was only like $1.25 then..No sorry ass Breeze cards just weekly MARTA cards and tokens.
I miss the old way MARTA did things..
Far as with the trains they SUCK!! REALLY!!
THE TRAINS BREAK DOWN ALL THE TIME…
I ONLY SEE MARTA POLICE AT FIVE POINTS
THE TEENAGERS HAVE TAKEN OVER…JUST THE OTHER DAY TWO LADIES WERE ABOUT TO BRAWL OVER A MAN AND MARTA POLICE WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND..THAT HELD THE TRAIN UP LONGER WAITING FOR THEM..ONLY FOR THEM TO CALL ATLANTA POLICE..
I DON’T LIKE THE RAISE IN FARE..I THINK THEY SHOULD HAVE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE…
Turd Ferguson
October 1st, 2009
12:49 pm
urccjss
October 1st, 2009
12:33 pm
You are the perfect example of a Marta employee/rider/freeloader. How many more gubmint programs are you a member of, ya LOSER!! SHUT IT!
Turd Ferguson
October 1st, 2009
12:55 pm
Marta is a huge yet typical corrupt Atlanta CRAPFEST.
Eric
October 1st, 2009
1:02 pm
A lane of traffic generally can only handle around 1,500 cars a day. See link below. So if the train were carrying 3,000 people an hour that would eliminate the need for 2 lanes, eliminate the need for capacity on streets leading to 285 and eliminate the need for your employer to provide a parking space for you (and for MARTA to provide one if you live near the train).
But a Marta Rail car has a capacity well over 50, rush hour trains especially with the peak 12 minute intervals usually are standing room only. Though they are usually only 8 cars now. Great thing about trains is capacity can be increased by adding cars or reducing intervals, much easier than adding lanes.
VT yes if you car pool and don’t include wear an tear on your car it might be cheaper than MARTA. MARTA is cheaper for those of us who take it to work and don’t carpool. Its much cheaper actually.
For some of the others – you don’t take the train obviously, MARTA trains are full of people going to work and the MARTA trains run on schedule. Go spew your hate somewhere else.
As to Gwinnett the recent vote they took showed a vast majority of those in South Gwinnett or the areas closer to 285 vastly in favor of it, especially where the rail would go. Those in the more rural areas of Gwinnett were did not support it.
http://books.google.com/books?id=FDU7F-vUK58C&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=capacity+of+a+traffic+lane&source=bl&ots=sv-NKH6wps&sig=AAWIRHLZW6nDJ_vbktboi4NeVgw&hl=en&ei=Jd7ESo2iN43l8QaPncw1&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=capacity%20of%20a%20traffic%20lane&f=false
No more MARTA for me...
October 1st, 2009
1:09 pm
Hey “Works for me!”…the reason there is no station between Doraville & Norcross is because MARTA decided to “punish” Gwinnett when the vote was first held back in the late 1980s. Orginally, the Doraville station was going to be outside I-285, but because Gwinnett voters opposed letting the MARTA welfare system into the county, it was pulled back inside the Perimeter…..
East Point Resident
October 1st, 2009
1:41 pm
To all that don’t want MARTA to be state subsidized…State Highways and Roads are state subsidized. How many people are paying for SR 20 without using it? I’ve never been to Rome and don’t really want to go, but I’m paying for the road that goes there. Fair is fair. Subsidize all transportation or none.
East Point Resident
October 1st, 2009
1:48 pm
BTW – I’m one of the thousands of White Middle Class office workers that use MARTA everyday. I’ve been riding for five years and have had less than 5 incidents where my commute was delayed. If you rode MARTA during rush hour you would see that everybody rides MARTA. It is always ontime and fast. I do run into punks everynow and then, but overall it is a much better system than driving alone to Midtown.
Kat
October 1st, 2009
2:11 pm
VTHokiefan: You rock! That was incredible.
TS
October 1st, 2009
2:16 pm
VTHokie for Mayor!
WhiteWoman
October 1st, 2009
2:17 pm
You don’t want to know what I think of MARTA in the first place. I have used it on several occasions (emergency) and out of those occasions, I can’t remember ONE where I wasn’t approached by some salesperson, mental deviant, drunk or addict. Just because I am an elderly white woman, that does NOT mean you can take advantage of me.
ATL Resident
October 1st, 2009
2:25 pm
Some of the comments on here about MARTA and its riders are absolutely absurd generalizations, and they have nothing to do with the organization’s fare hike in the least. I have been using the MARTA system (both bus and train) as my promary mode of transportation for almost a year now and have never run into anything that resembles incidents that some of these posters “claim” they have had while using MARTA.
In addtion, I take offense that I am classified as part of the “welfare class” and “straight outta compton” just because my choice of transport back and forth from work doesn’t involve sitting in miles and miles of traffic for hours surrounded by motorists that drive like it’s their first time behind the wheel of a car. In fact, I’m a hard-working, tax paying citizen, just like 75% of the fellow riders I encounter every day while on the bus or the train.
And lastly, if my hard-earned money goes toward paying for your suburban and back-country roads that loop around the middle of nowhere and serve no purpose to me but get you home to your cookie-cutter subdivision each day, isn’t it fair that your hard-earned money should also benefit me, and the thousands of others who choose to live and work in the city, by making our ride home from work every day a little bit easier? All of you conservative folks with your small minds and constant need to express your idea of how the world should work by making uneducated generalizations don’t look cool, you look like a bunch of backwoods morons.
inz dong
October 1st, 2009
2:37 pm
i ride mawrtah. who dont.
Will Never Use Marta Again
October 1st, 2009
2:39 pm
Does this mean MARTA can finally pay me the $300 they owe me for missing my flight??? MARTA failed to properly maintain the system causing one of the rails to fall off the track. Causing me to be late for my flight by 10 minutes!!!
Jermaine
October 1st, 2009
2:46 pm
Dis be racist. They just targeting us black folk.
John
October 1st, 2009
2:47 pm
Who cares??????? Well all know what MARTA stands for right? If you don’t, Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta
Non-believer in MARTA
October 1st, 2009
2:48 pm
I unfortunately ride MARTA everyday to get to the downtown area and really would like to see improvements for the extra charge as opposed to cutbacks. Since the summer, I’ve seen less security and they have cut service times. I would much prefer better security than the TV monitors that never work
Tyree
October 1st, 2009
2:54 pm
Race always enters every AJC blog. Gotta love Hotlanta.
professional skeptic
October 1st, 2009
3:33 pm
VT Hokiefan: Thanks for the most entertaining thing I’ve read all day: “John Parker Wilson hair”… “Bryson Grayson Jackson III”… awesome!
Also, ATL Resident hits the nail on the head. I’ve lived in Atlanta for 10 years, and my tax dollars have been subsidizing roads all over this great state of Georgia that I have never driven on and probably never will. Why should my tax dollars pay for roads in Bacon County (nothing against Bacon County or the people who live there)? For that matter why are any of our state roads subsidized by tax dollars? Why doesn’t our state legislature allow Atlantans to TAX THEMSELVES to increase funding for transit solutions that make sense for our city?
Plus, to all you haters who claim MARTA doesn’t benefit you: How much longer do you think it would take to drive to/from work in the mornings if MARTA’s 250,000 daily riders all of a sudden clogged the roads with even more traffic?
Eleanor
October 1st, 2009
3:46 pm
First of all Gwinnett should be REQUIRED to help support the MARTA system. Go in any parking lot near Gwinnett County line and you will find five out of six cars with Gwinnett license plates. Second, tie ALL the systems into MARTA – Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett and tax those counties the same as DeKalb and Fulton. Most importantly, bombard Jill Chambers with your complaints. It is her arrogant, high brow attitude – she drives a huge new Cadillac and probably wouldn’t know what the inside of a MARTA bus or train looks like – toward MARTA and its requests that has caused this. If you happen to live in her district, vote her out because she don’t care one thin dime about any of us.
Bryan
October 1st, 2009
3:49 pm
I’m 100% with ATL resident. The people who say all these bad things happen on MARTA are just making ridiculous statements and generalizations and probably have never rode the system at all. I’ve rode different systems from MTA in New York and CTA in Chicago and Patco in metro Philly and by far MARTA is the cleanest rail system I have ever seen. The bus system is pretty clean too. I have never heard so much bull crap and racism about a transit system that provides service in all areas of ATL from low income to some of the more upper class areas. I think MARTA has done a great job rehabing all of it’s rail cars and replacing the tracks. Yeah sometimes it holds up travel but it is something that needs to be done. God forbid another DC accident ever happen because of faulty equipment.
The fare increase was long overdue. Most major cities are charging $2 and $2.25 already. There definitely needs to be more help the surrounding counties that make up the metro area and definitely from the state of Georgia. Look how terrible the bus service is in Gwinett. Only 4 local bus routes and the one that actually runs decent (#10 route) is the one that connects to MARTA along with the express routes that connect to MARTA and downtown ATL. Look at Clayton Transit… overcrowded and slow. CCT has decent coverage but they still have their fastest running buses (#10 and the express routes) connecting to MARTA. The rail should have been in areas like that. Look at the downtown Marietta and Cumberland/Galleria area… perfect for a rail stop. Places like Clayton and Gwinett may not have the density but the have the people to drive to the stations. They would just need a better bus system to bring folks to the stations like MARTA currently has. Xpress is a great service but without MARTA and the city of Atlanta there wouldn’t even be a need for Xpress. MARTA rail definitely should be expanded into those areas and even more within Fulton and Dekalb and ALL OF US should pay.
For those that say they shouldn’t just think about you state taxes that pay for roads you will never use. Heck for people living in ATL how many side streets are there that you will never drive down that get repaved with your taxes? That is how a major city works. You may never use it but it helps someone else and in turn their moneys will help your area when needed even if they never come and see what has been done. MARTA can have a great rail system and bus network if the metro area worked together instead of trying to get their own system that doesn’t work and winds up connecting to MARTA anyway.
Finally to all the fools that keep talking about the Blacks that ride MARTA and the low income people (particularly John and Terd Ferguson) get the heck out of the A-Town!! Always remember without the city of Atlanta you wouldn’t have the ammenities that you enjoy for living in the presense of a major city. The entire state of Georgia should be happy to have such a city in their state. MARTA is the transit back bone that helps this city move and not just Black folks… all people. Some of the nicest developments in the city are around MARTA stations and there are plenty of White folks and all races riding MARTA at all times. Some of the people making these comments probably never rode MARTA a day in their lives or are use to being cooped up in their cars with just the people that they know that being around differnt people scares them. If you don’t like it just stay the F off because there are plenty of people who ride and even folks that don’t ride but understand the importance of MARTA!
professional skeptic
October 1st, 2009
6:22 pm
Well, well, well. Look what I found! A recent letter to the editor from a North Carolina family who enjoyed their experience on MARTA so much, that they decided to share their experiences with us.
If MARTA and its employees are as bad as the haters and the racists say, then how do you explain the contents of this glowing letter?
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/readers-write-9-16-139338.html
Amir
October 1st, 2009
6:29 pm
Wow, some of these comments are just amazing to me. “Well all know what MARTA stands for right? If you don’t, Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta”, “Dis be racist. They just targeting us black folk.” Now how many white people in Georgia, or America still thinks we’re in a post racial era?
Rod
October 2nd, 2009
8:12 am
I believe everyone will enjoy the fare increase. Who doesn’t want to pay more for services in this economy? Excellent idea. lol How about giving the upper management a pay cut and freeze their salaries for 5 yrs. Also how about no increase in salaries for the 200 highest paid workers starting with the CEO until Marta is at least breaking even. America the land of increases fares and increasing pay for those at the top the rest of us get screwed-lol not
Misty
October 2nd, 2009
9:27 am
I think the timing of this fare increase couldn’t be worse! The economy is horrible, unemployment is like 10%, probably much higher, and many people are struggling just to survive and maintain what they have. Marta also can’t begin to compare with other transit systems in the world; I’m sure those people who have lived in various states and other countries would agree. In addition Marta is still operating like its 1970, gimme a break. If your’e going to increase fares, give us something to work with,not the same old system, and how can you stop running the buses, and trains at certain times, and even cut many bus routes, yet increase your rates. Another thing that really gripes me is when there are any events in town, we are all told to “take Marta”. I’ve been on the train on those special event days and it’s like being packed in a sardine, there are thousands of riders on Marta those days so there is no way Marta can say anything about not making enough money so they need to increase fares, that’s a lie! It’s greed, and complete selfishness like all the other businesses that are falling before our eyes!