AJC Interview: MARTA ‘more than ready’ for World Cup events, chief says

Greenwood said his agency has more experience operating at the World Cup’s scale than most other groups that will be serving visitors expected for games happening this summer and next. During the 2019 Super Bowl, more than 270,000 people rode MARTA the Saturday before the game — ridership that far surpasses the crowds expected for any World Cup event.

“We’re tried, tested and true,” Greenwood said. “Yes, it’s going to be sustained over eight games, but absolutely, we’ll be more than ready.”

Credit: Handout

Credit: Handout

But MARTA came under fire after riders experienced long delays after this month’s Shakira concert and last fall’s Atlanta Pride celebrations.

“We fell down with Shakira,” Greenwood said. “We recognize that.”

During both of those events, MARTA was single-tracking which means trains traveling in either direction share one track instead of running on parallel tracks. It’s necessary in situations where maintenance crews need to work on or near the tracks but it reduces the frequency of service. Officials have said that routine maintenance can’t always be completed during off-service hours.

The single-tracking delays were compounded during the Pride celebrations last fall by two power outages and a separate infrastructure issue. At the Shakira concert, officials have said the problems resulted from operational and communication failures. The unused platform wasn’t blocked off at Five Points station and there weren’t signs alerting riders to the changes as there should have been, MARTA’s chief operating officer said earlier this week.

“By not following established procedures, we did frustrate and confuse,” George Wright said Thursday at MARTA’s board of directors meeting.

After the Pride missteps, MARTA said it would reconsider weekend train work and has made other changes so delays are avoided or mitigated during big events. That process has mostly worked well, Greenwood said, but the Shakira concert shows there’s room for improvement.

During holidays and major events —like July 4th or FIFA games —single-tracking won’t be scheduled at all on the day of the event.

For other types of events, it depends.

About 11,000 people were expected to attend the Shakira concert, which qualified it as a “small crowd” on MARTA’s matrix. When attendance is below 18,000 people and ridership is projected to be below 1,500, planned single tracking is allowed.

During mid- and large-scale events, planned single-tracking is allowed in certain circumstances but at minimum is not allowed at the stations serving the event until after crowds have cleared.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

It’s a guide and not a rigid rule, MARTA’s manager of track scheduling, Wendee Sexton, told the agency’s board members Thursday. A team meets weekly to review the logistics of each scheduled event.

One of the lessons from the Shakira concert, officials said, was that single-tracking plans need to be better communicated to riders. Going forward, riders can expect to see signs and hear PA announcements. There will also be greater staffing at affected stations to help direct riders.

Greenwood told The AJC Friday he wants to be accountable when the agency messes up. But he said the fact that there have been no other issues with more than 550 events in the eight months between Pride celebrations and the Shakira concert shows the new single-tracking guide is largely working well. MARTA has single-tracked an average of nine out of every 10 days in that time period.

For the Club World Cup games that start Monday, MARTA will have transit ambassadors stationed throughout the system to assist riders. Additional staff will be at the Five Points and Georgia World Congress Center/CNN stations to help load and unload trains quickly. MARTA police will be patrolling the whole system and park-and-ride lots.

The club games qualify as a “major” event and no single-tracking is scheduled.