Morning, y’all! Friendly reminder from a stranger (unless you’re one of my inbox regulars): Time to get your flu and COVID shots! If you need some convincing, we got you. Take a big breath and be brave.
Let’s get to it.
WHAT’S THE FUTURE OF MASS TRANSIT IN ATLANTA?
Anyone in Atlanta knows MARTA has its share of struggles. The AJC is digging into some of these issues at an important time for the agency.
With the World Cup, Atlanta is about to host the biggest international event in the city since the 1996 Olympics. The head of the agency just stepped down. Questions about funding and expansion projects are reaching a fever pitch as Atlanta continues to outgrow the current infrastructure.
Here are some basics:
Challenged from the beginning: MARTA was formed in 1971 as a series of bus lines. Voters in Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties rejected the project, and those areas are still underserved by MARTA routes today. Securing federal funding was also an issue because other major cities were building rail lines at the same time.
By the numbers:
- 48: Miles of MARTA rail track
- 38: Subway stations
- 65 million: Total annual ridership, including bus and rail
Current challenges:
- Ridership: Like other cities, Atlanta ridership dipped dramatically during the pandemic. It’s been slower to recover than other systems.
- Scope: The last MARTA rail expansion stations opened back in 2000. While other projects have increased the agency’s service, growth has largely stagnated.
- Quality: Broken turn styles, inaccurate fare counts, disappearing bus routes, neglected stations, unexpected service outages and high-profile mishaps (like the escalator malfunction earlier this year after a Beyoncé concert) have tarnished MARTA’s reputation even further.
- Money: With federal cuts reducing available capital even more, MARTA has to decide how to stay competitive on the national and international stage.
So, what happens next?
Over the next year, MARTA is anticipating the completion of several projects, including:
- New train cars
- The first major redesign of the bus network since MARTA’s creation
- The region’s first rapid bus line
- A tap-to-pay fare system
- Expansions to connecting systems like the Atlanta Beltline
As for next summer, MARTA may look to its successes during the 1996 Olympics. Before The Games, construction on new rail stops kicked into high gear. During, MARTA’s rail and bus lines operated 24/7.
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CHANGES FOR SOME BIG ATLANTA BRANDS
Speaking of changes, other intrinsically Atlanta names are perched on their own fulcrums.
Coca-Cola: Coke announced it will sell a majority stake in Africa’s largest Coca-Cola bottler, continuing a retreat from the labor-intensive and expensive in-house bottling business. More here.
CNN and WBD: Warner Bros. Discovery, parent company of CNN and TNT, wants to sell itself. The question is, will it split up Solomon-style and sell off piecemeal? That was the original plan, but now the company says it’s considering other options to increase profitability. More here.
Six Flags: An activist investor group that includes the NFL’s Travis Kelce purchased a majority stake in Six Flags Entertainment and wants to revive the business’s struggling parks. That includes Six Flags over Georgia just outside I-285. More here.
TEACHER HITS BACK OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POST PRESSURE
A former Georgia teacher of the year finalist who was encouraged to resign over a post about conservative activist Charlie Kirk is suing her Oglethorpe County employer.
Michelle Mickens, a high school English teacher, made a friends-restricted post on her personal Facebook page after work hours from her personal computer. The post contained a verified quote from Kirk, without additional commentary:
‘I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.’ - Charlie Kirk
Mickens has been on “indefinite paid suspension pending termination” for more than a month and claims the school violated her First Amendment rights.
HEROES SPEAK
After the adrenaline went down and after everything calmed down, I realized I know why I'm a police officer. I know why I'm here and I serve at the Atlanta Police Department.
Officers recounted the harrowing moments leading up to the arrest of a man who threatened to “shoot up” the Atlanta airport and had the guns and ammo to do so.
MUST-KNOW POLITICS AND BUSINESS
🥩 U.S. ranchers aren’t happy about President Donald Trump’s plan to import more beef from Argentina as part of a larger bailout for the country. Experts say it probably won’t reduce prices either.
🏥 Wellstar Health System won state approval to build a new $1.1 billion hospital in an affluent Acworth area. If plans continue, Wellstar says it will be open by 2031.
⚕️ Georgia will lose 33,600 jobs next year if federal health insurance subsidies expire, according to a study from researchers at George Washington University.
NEWS BITES
Thieves hit The Louvre, and France’s crown jewels may be lost forever
I want to know how you fence super famous and recognizable jewels. Maybe you keep them, wear them around while you vacuum?
If someone nicknamed me the “Little Ball of Hate” I would never recover.
UPS to retrofit thousands of trucks in the South with AC
Give delivery drivers AC! It’s literally the least they deserve!
At first this makes no sense. The most random collaboration from the Collaboration Randomizer. Then you remember Sparks always has some oddly macabre plot twist and it starts to make more sense than it should.
ON THIS DATE
Oct. 22, 1997
We’re No. 10! Study ranks Atlanta’s traffic among worst in the nation. A traffic study of 50 major American cities reports what most metro commuters already know — Atlanta’s congestion is among the worst in the nation. The Texas Transportation Institute ... used 1994 data to rank Atlanta 10th on its “roadway congestion index.” ... The study suggested the average metro Atlantan is delayed 44 hours a year by congested traffic, wasting about 64 gallons of gasoline.
I am astounded we weren’t higher or that we’re not higher now. A 2025 report puts Atlanta as No. 8, below Miami and Houston (New York and Los Angeles take the top spots) and right above Washington, D.C.
As someone who has lived in both Atlanta and Washington, here’s the difference: D.C. traffic is bad because it never moves. Atlanta traffic is bad because it’s moving way too much.
ONE MORE THING
In the interest of transparency, I had never listened to David Bowie’s “Changes” outside of the “ch-ch-changes” part until I wrote the newsletter headline today, and now I am circling the open maw of an existential crisis. As the kids would say, it’s a bop.
Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact us at AMATL@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
AJ Willingham is an National Emmy, NABJ and Webby award-winning journalist who loves talking culture, religion, sports, social justice, infrastructure and the arts. She lives in beautiful Smyrna-Mableton and went to Syracuse University.
