Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2005 > November > 15
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Why MARTA fails
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The news promo implored viewers to stay tuned Sunday night for a story on how MARTA was training to protect its riders from terrorist attacks.
Well, if there’s ever an actual attack on this region’s mass transit system, take this advice: Fend for yourself. Run. Do something. Just don’t count on MARTA employees to save your behind.
Last Thursday, my son and I had tickets to the Hawks-Clippers game. We made it to the MARTA Chamblee station in plenty of time to make it to Philips Arena. Parking was a nonissue, and even though it was rush hour, few people were arriving or leaving the station.
I slipped a $5 bill into one of three token dispensers. It spit it back at me. Ditto for the other two machines. I had three more $5 bills in my pocket. I inserted each of them as the diagram instructs — with Abe facing up. All three machines rejected all three bills.
We looked around for other dispensers. They were boarded up with plywood.
Finally, we spotted what appeared to be a MARTA employee. It was hard to tell. He was yucking it up with another young man. His hair was braided. He had a skull cap pulled over his ears. The only thing that hinted at MARTA was a walkie-talkie strapped to his leg, of all places.
I hopped over the turnstile. So did Miles. Wrong move.
Before I could speak, the employee admonished me for breaking the law. We weren’t sneaking in, I assured him. We were having a hard time buying tokens and needed help.
He said there was nothing he could do to help me. I told him he must be kidding. He reached in his pocket and gave me a $5 — in exchange for one of mine, of course.
“Try this,” he said.
We did. Three times. No dice. We hopped over the turnstile for a second time, and approached the same dude. He and his friend were still chatting. I asked if there was a change machine in the complex.
“Nope.”
I asked if there was an office or a supervisor where we could buy tokens and forego trying to use the dispensers.
“Nope.”
He pointed to the taxi cabs parked out front. “Go get change from them,” he said.
A woman who was waiting for someone to pick her up had seen the exchange. “It’s like this all the time,” she said, shaking her head.
And if it is, that explains a lot.
It’s part of the reason Gwinnett commuters don’t ride transit, at least the regional system. It’s not worth the personal hardship to patronage a system that takes you so few places and does it hit or miss.
Maybe MARTA ought to train its employees in customer service. To say, “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am.” To dress in a way that’s presentable when on the clock. To treat people like the paying customers that they are.
We read too many stories about MARTA’s bigger problems — financial, ridership, cutbacks and scheduling. But until the folks who run the mass transit understand the importance of little things, all those larger issues really won’t matter.
