# MARTA,Atlanta's subway



## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 18, 2009)

According to the Friday 12/18/09 Atlanta Journal Constitution, MARTA anniversary celerations continue with an event downtown today at the Five Points Station. The first train rolled from the Avondale Station to Georgia State University on June 30, 1979.


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## Phila 30th St (Dec 18, 2009)

Hooray for MARTA! I salute it as being a really good way to avoid Atlanta traffic when going to the airport. Wish it went closer to Turner Field though.


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## AlanB (Dec 18, 2009)

A short story on this can be found here.


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## DET63 (Dec 18, 2009)

Linked by AlanB above:



> The agency got its start by taking on Atlanta’s existing bus system.


Isn't MARTA the name of both the train and bus system in Atlanta? According to Wikipedia, MARTA came into existence in 1972, when it bought out the existing bus system, years before the rail system opened. So, if the statement quoted is referring to the train system, it's false. If it's referring to the entire system, it's confusing, and possibly false as well.


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## MrEd (Dec 18, 2009)

I know you can see the marta rail from the crescent, but is it possible to walk to a station and take it downtown from the amtrak location ?


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 18, 2009)

DET63 said:


> Linked by AlanB above:
> 
> 
> > The agency got its start by taking on Atlanta’s existing bus system.
> ...



It is all good.

The name MARTA does refer both to the trains and the buses.

The newspaper article noted in the first sentence that it referred to the train service.

The wikipedia artilce agreed that June 30 1979 is when the trains started.It is in that sidebar on the right hand side.

I moved to Atlanta in 1977 and two years sounds about right to me for when the train began.

The newspaper article originally cited has itself been updated to show a time line. If you want to see that it is in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.


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## AlanB (Dec 18, 2009)

MrEd said:


> I know you can see the marta rail from the crescent, but is it possible to walk to a station and take it downtown from the amtrak location ?


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.


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## MikefromCrete (Dec 18, 2009)

Bill Haithcoat said:


> According to the Friday 12/18/09 Atlanta Journal Constitution, MARTA anniversary celerations continue with an event downtown today at the Five Points Station. The first train rolled from the Avondale Station to Georgia State University on June 30, 1979.


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


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 18, 2009)

MikefromCrete said:


> Bill Haithcoat said:
> 
> 
> > According to the Friday 12/18/09 Atlanta Journal Constitution, MARTA anniversary celerations continue with an event downtown today at the Five Points Station. The first train rolled from the Avondale Station to Georgia State University on June 30, 1979.
> ...



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.


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## sechs (Dec 19, 2009)

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.


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## AlanB (Dec 19, 2009)

sechs said:


> 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.


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.


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 19, 2009)

sechs said:


> 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.


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.


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## DET63 (Dec 19, 2009)

MikefromCrete said:


> Bill Haithcoat said:
> 
> 
> > According to the Friday 12/18/09 Atlanta Journal Constitution, MARTA anniversary celerations continue with an event downtown today at the Five Points Station. The first train rolled from the Avondale Station to Georgia State University on June 30, 1979.
> ...


Just keeping up tradition by running a little late?


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## Bill Haithcoat (Dec 19, 2009)

DET63 said:


> MikefromCrete said:
> 
> 
> > Bill Haithcoat said:
> ...


A trick they learned from Amtrak, maybe? :lol:


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## battalion51 (Dec 20, 2009)

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


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## TVRM610 (Dec 21, 2009)

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.


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