Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum: Replying To MARTA,Atlanta's subway - Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

I agree that many MANY people have a very bad perception of MARTA. Just the other day I was talking to a man who lives in Atlanta and is a rail fan and he told me he has never ridden MARTA "Because of all the crime."

I've never ridden it either, although I would like to, it seems like a rather nice system.

A celebration at Five Points!?! What could be grander than getting shot!?!

DET63, on Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 02:39 PM, said:

A trick they learned from Amtrak, maybe?

MikefromCrete, on Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 06:38 PM, said:

Just keeping up tradition by running a little late?

sechs, on Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 02:37 AM, said:

All I can say to that is that I moved to ATL 32 years ago. Have ridden MARTA bus and or train an average of about one round trip a day seven days a week, even in retirement. On and off bus and train stops all over the area, not just my immediate neighborhood. That is thousands of trips.

Not once has anybody asked if I was lost or trying to hail a cab.

Closest I ever came to looking lost was looking drunk. That was in the Amtrak station, I stopped in to use the restroom, was dressed shabbily as usual, lilly white cheeks were extra red from the cold. Somebody said something that made me know they thought I was "somebody like that". But even then, not "lost".

Come to think of it one night somebody questioned me as to why I was in my own church. And I belong to a denomination where churches are usually open and more or less anybody wonders in.

sechs, on Sat, Dec 19, 2009, 01:37 AM, said:

How's that?

Annual unlinked passenger trips for MARTA:

1996: 144,804,547
1997: 170,380,432
1998: 158,263,988
1999: 163,801,369
2000: 167,067,140
2001: 164,077,582
2002: 159,357,652
2003: 142,762,444
2004: 136,157,132
2005: 142,385,899
2006: 138,403,312
2007: 147,523,544

Remember that the Olympics took place in 1996, so other than 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2006, where slight dips of between 2 million to as much as 8 million, ridership hasn't really dropped off all that much. And many years it was higher than 1996. Hardly a shadow of what it was.

I'm surprised that it's survived so long. MARTA seemed like a real joke when I visited a few years ago; it's a shadow of the system that moved so many people during the Olympics.

When I was waiting at a bus stop downtown (uptown?) a couple of years ago, I had several people ask me if I was lost or trying to hail a taxi. I think that tells you how much many Atlanta residents think of their transit system.

MikefromCrete, on Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 10:38 PM, said:

The way they word it is "anniversary celebrations continue" so I guess there was an earlier one as well though I do not remember it.

Bill Haithcoat, on Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 09:40 AM, said:

If the first trains rolled in June, why are they celebrating now?

MrEd, on Fri, Dec 18, 2009, 06:10 PM, said:

Bill would know better, but I believe that it's a rather hefty walk from Amtrak to the nearest MARTA station. However, unless there have been some recent changes, one can catch a bus right by Amtrak that will actually take you right into A MARTA station (the Arts Station IIRC) where a free transfer to the trains is available.