MARTA to cut routes, Braves shuttle, 400 jobs

By Ariel Hart

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Rail passengers could wait as much as five minutes longer — and for trains with fewer cars. All station bathrooms might close, except for Five Points. And cuts in bus service, including the Braves shuttle, might affect scores of roads.

It’s not just commuters who would feel the pain under the recommendations of a MARTA committee, which tentatively approved the belt-tightening measures Thursday. Under the plan, about 400 of MARTA’s 5,000 employees would lose their jobs.

If the full MARTA board passes the plan at the end of June, the transit agency will drop 41 of its 131 bus routes and cover 482 fewer miles.

Among the other cuts the committee approved:

-- The Braves shuttle would be eliminated next year.
-- Weekend commuters would have no more 4:45 a.m. trains.
-- Bus service would no longer be provided on some parts of Ponce de Leon Avenue, Fairburn Road, Donald L. Hollowell Parkway, Pharr Road and scores of other roads.
-- Routes like those to Chastain Park and the one between North DeKalb Hospital and Emory University would be eliminated. Ride stores would close at Lindbergh and Lenox
stations.
-- A total of 743 positions would be eliminated, but many are vacant. The MARTA employees who lose their jobs would be out by late September.

But the picture is not as dire as a few months ago, when MARTA was planning to cut up to 25 percent of its service. MARTA has significantly scaled back those planned cuts, even though it will still be left with a deficit of $69 million, which it plans to pull from reserves.

In a statement, Beverly Scott, MARTA’s general manager, said, “At this critical juncture [with the region discussing transit expansion], it would be the height of irresponsibility for MARTA to do anything less than to preserve the maximum transit service and infrastructure investment that has been made over the past 35 years.”

MARTA officials said they scaled back the cuts after listening to public comment, and learning of some improvements in revenue. The final draft now goes through another round of public comment.

As the employee rolls stand now, 86 would be laid off in June, and the rest would go when the service cuts are implemented at the end of September. They include union employees such as drivers, mechanics and maintenance workers, and non-union administration employees, said MARTA’s chief of business support services, Ted Basta.

“We will have literally taken MARTA down 15 percent from what is already a skeletal service for a major metropolitan area,” Scott said Thursday. “It’s not OK, but it’s the condition we find ourselves in.”

Trains would run until 1 a.m., rather than ending earlier as first planned. On weekends, they would start at 6 a.m., not 7 a.m., making a big difference for workers in the hospitality industry, MARTA officials said. Some buses that were slated for the dustbin are safe for now, such as the route on North Druid Hills.

As the economy begins to heal, MARTA is expecting $15.5 million more in the sales tax revenues that it collects from Fulton and DeKalb counties.

MARTA should save about $44.1 million as a result of the service and staff cuts in the fiscal year 2011, and $58.8 million the following year. It’s expecting other additional savings and revenues, including about $5 million from contracting to buy fuel cheaply, and about $1 million from retail and real estate concession deals that aren’t done yet.

MARTA originally projected its deficit to be $120 million for the fiscal year that begins in July. But with the cuts and the added revenues, it will be $69 million.

The Legislature this year voted to lift for three years a restriction on how MARTA spends its sales tax revenues.

If Gov. Sonny Perdue signs it, that means MARTA can dip into its capital reserves for operations, making a total of $203.8 million in reserves.

Even so, by the fiscal year 2013, there wouldn’t be enough to cover MARTA’s operating deficits.

Measures MARTA already had under way, such as furloughs and a freeze on merit raises, will continue, Scott said.

What's next

MARTA’s final draft of proposed cuts now goes out for public comment. (All hearings start at 5 p.m.) At the end of June, it will come back to the MARTA board for final approval.

Here are some key dates:

June 7: Public hearings at South Fulton Government Center in College Park and at Roswell City Hall.

June 8: Public hearings at Maloof Auditorium in Decatur and Atlanta City Hall.

June 28: MARTA committee and full board may adopt the plan.

Sept. 25: Bus and train service cuts will be implemented.

Oct. 3: MARTA pass prices will increase.