Atlanta motorists stalk fuel trucks; MARTA sees more riders

Tanker truck drivers have never been so popular in metro Atlanta.

A line of cars literally followed a fuel-filled truck Sunday as it pulled into a QuikTrip tucked between Lawrenceville Highway and the North DeKalb Mall around 11 a.m. And it wasn’t long before more motorists swooned, seemingly under the spell of some petro perfume.

Robert Maples, who had about 10 miles of gas left in his tank, had been sitting in line for 45 minutes at a Shell station across town when his brother-in-law called. “He said, ‘Hey, the QT only has a 15-minute line,’ so I flew over here.”

Tonniki King was one of two clerks directing motorists to the 22 pumps. She waved vehicles into place with her right hand. But her left hand told the rest of the story. It held white plastic bags, the ones she removed an hour earlier and expected to put back over the pumps again.

Each fuel delivery has typically lasted seven hours, she said, followed by four hours of waiting. In between, motorists have been parking next to the pumps, trying to camp out. King politely asks them move on, until that next tanker truck arrives.

Maples, an audio-visual technician at the Georgia Aquarium, said he’ll probably take MARTA to work this week from his Decatur home. So will Dom Grayson of Lithonia, who was fueling up his Volvo a few pumps away.

“It’s not the best option for me,” said Grayson, who plans to park at the Indian Creek MARTA station. “But I don’t know when [fuel] will be available again.”

Rich Krisak, assistant general manager of rail operations for MARTA, said in a telephone interview Sunday night that transit officials will be watching ridership closely Monday to see if they need to ramp up their schedules. Also, overflow lots at the Oakland City and East Lake stations will be available.

On the Monday and Tuesday after Hurricane Ike hit the Gulf Coast, ridership rose 3 to 4 percent, Krisak said, and MARTA added trains. The same thing could be done this week if there’s another spike, he said.

“There’s a lot of standing room left on those trains,” Krisak said.

The overall increase in gas prices has helped push MARTA’s ridership through the roof since last year. It shot up 14 percent in July from the same month in 2007, a larger gain than at any other rail system in the nation, Krisak said.