Comments on: Atlanta’s Transit System is In Trouble

By: Tough Times for MARTA Could Mean Service Cutbacks – EcoLocalizer

Tough Times for MARTA Could Mean Service Cutbacks – EcoLocalizer — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 10:33:27 +0000

[...] is from a memo that MARTA sent to state lawmakers. Atlanta’s transit system has been dealing with a $60 million budget shortfall since December. That, combined with a dramatic decrease in predicted sales tax revenue for the [...]

By: Regional Transit Driver

Regional Transit Driver — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 23:15:37 +0000

Well we tried for years to rid ourselves of Dr. Scott. MARTA wanted her so bad and didnt even think why we where almost willing to pay them to take her from R.T. jokes on you MARTA. R.T almost collapsed due to her mismanagement of funds and her over paid office staff who did nothing. R.T paid for her Gastric Bypass surgery so now maybe you can pay for her lack of commen sense Enjoy

By: Steve Winston

Steve Winston — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 17:23:36 +0000

Well, Dr B.S. (Beverly Scott) ruined Sacramento Regional Transit, so now it is no surprise she is ruining MARTA… how funny! Ya’ll wanted her so bad, and we are glad we got rid of her!! Tell her to take a pay cut!!!

By: Becky Striepe

Becky Striepe — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:12:45 +0000

Marilyn – that’s a great question! It looks like the governor nominates the MTA’s boardmembers, which makes me think NY’s subway does get state funding. It looks like BART also gets state funds. I get the feeling that MARTA is one of the few transit systems that doesn’t.

Lori – I totally agree. From what I’ve heard, a lot of that was because folks in those counties did not want MARTA in their areas back when the system was first mapped out. I’ve also heard that a lot of that resistance was racially motivated, which makes it doubly infuriating. The only info I can find on that is this Wikipedia article.

By: lorigami

lorigami — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:52:45 +0000

What is the most ludicrous to me is that there are three seperate bussing systems for the metro area. If those three systems were combined into one, perhaps that remaining system could survive and grow. (and perhaps you could actually get somewhere in a logical manner instead of having to stop at the county border and wait for the next system’s bus to pick you up)

By: marilyn

marilyn — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:48:13 +0000

This was really interesting. Did you come across any facts about whether/which other cities’ public transit systems have ever gotten state and federal funding? I guess NYC and Boston have been around so long that they’ve been able to slowly build up the transit with the city (and that’s partly why they’re so good) but San Francisco has a pretty decent system and they can’t be an older city than Atlanta, right? I don’t know if the BART is any bigger than MARTA, but it does seem to go to a lot more cool places…

Tangentially, I’ve been pretty impressed with Athens’ bus system, they have a lot of covered stops and this past year they did some kind of contest for designing bus stops, so we have all these awesome ones thought up by art students from across the country, like one that’s made out of an old school bus!