3 hours, 21 minutes, 37 seconds. A MARTA world record?
Here’s the thing: If it were easy, setting a Guinness World Record probably wouldn’t feel as satisfying. The urge to distinguish oneself wouldn’t tug as strongly.
Joabe Barbosa has tasted the thrill of a world record once already, for the fastest visit to all of Chicago’s transit stations. He, his brother and a friend set it last fall, during an early blizzard that set a snowfall record of its own and threatened to foil all their planning. It took them 8 hours, 58 minutes and 55 seconds.
By comparison, setting a similar record on MARTA seemed easy. The nicer weather, to start. Thirty-eight stations versus 146. Four rail lines instead of eight.
“There’s an old saying, if you eat a frog for breakfast, if you do the hard things first, then what you do after is gonna be much easier,” Barbosa said. “So we did Chicago … Now Atlanta, it’ll be, not easy, but you know, easier.”
This was said with confidence — albeit before Barbosa set off Thursday with Omar Yousaf and Matthew Plese, the friend who shares the Chicago record.
Guinness officials thought the trip could be completed in two hours. A YouTuber made the trek in 3 hours, 4 seconds. MARTA’s online trip planner called for at least 2 hours and 52 minutes, and that hinged on making several tight connections.
The trio hoped to finish under 3 hours.
“We don’t want to just set a record and then somebody comes in next week,” Plese said. “We want to make it unbreakable.”
Trailed by news cameras and official witnesses as the group boarded a Red line train at the North Springs station, Barbosa said he felt like a celebrity.
The train pulled out of the station at 3:04 p.m., right on schedule. Timekeeper Malachi Simmons started the stopwatch as soon as the doors closed.
What followed was an education in the challenges everyday riders face in a city with a train system that was always intended to go more places but hasn’t expanded in more than two decades.
But two things can be true at the same time. For every challenge the trio encountered, there were moments of joy and serendipity, moments where the kindness of strangers propelled the group forward.
Essentially, a real Atlanta experience, as the locals accompanying the group told the out-of-towners.
‘Fun to be a little impromptu’
It’s easier to set a record when none exists, of course.
MARTA spokeswoman Stephany Fisher said she isn’t aware of any previous official attempts here.
Aspiring record-holders have strict rules to follow from Guinness. The train has to stop in each station for it to count as a visit. The beginning and end of the trip must be captured on film, and each stop must be photographed. Witnesses have to attest to the effort. A log book needs to be kept for every stage of the journey.
Barbosa photographed each stop, while Plese updated the logbook. Yousaf wore a harness that held a phone videotaping the whole endeavor.
With four lines that cross downtown Atlanta like a plus sign, hitting every single MARTA station is relatively straightforward, except for where the Red and Gold lines split in the north and where the Green line branches off.
Their plan was to start at North Springs, the last station MARTA opened in 2000. From there, south to Lindbergh Center to transfer to the northbound Gold line.
At the Doraville terminus, the group would head south to Five Points, the central hub of the entire system. They hoped to catch a westbound Green train to Bankhead, then double back and hit the last two stations on the Blue line. From there, a eastbound Blue train to Indian Creek.
Then, another double back through Five Points before heading south to Airport, MARTA’s busiest station.
Time pressures didn’t allow for much exploration. They viewed murals in stations like Decatur from a distance and admired the exposed granite walls of the cavernous Peachtree Center station from inside their train car.
The trio didn’t have a contingency plan if anything went wrong, like when a tree fell across the tracks a few weeks ago and caused delays on two lines for most of the day. Yousaf’s parents live in Marietta, but the others rode MARTA for the first time ever upon arriving in Atlanta this week.
Barbosa confessed he had to Google how to catch the train after his flight landed.
“I’m somebody who doesn’t like to overplan things too much,” Plese said. “It’s more fun to be a little impromptu on the spot and adjust.”
Small, cascading delays add up
The group had to adjust their plans almost immediately.
Their train slowed to a crawl just north of the Lindbergh station at a place called the Canterbury Junction, where the Red and Gold lines cross. The intersection was rebuilt a few years ago, partly to let trains travel through faster. But it’s still a slow zone where speeds drop significantly.
The junction was one of many pinch points that Thomas Troxell, a former MARTA rail supervisor who tagged along with the trio for fun, worried could delay the group. As the train idled, he watched the live train tracker on his phone and shared the bad news: They’d miss their next transfer.
And maybe others.
“It adds 10 minutes to their time with a possible missed connection at Five Points to the Green Line,” Troxell said.
The train arrived at Lindbergh at 3:19 p.m., technically on time but not in time to cross the platform and catch a Gold train to Doraville that was pulling out of the station.
As the trio regrouped on the platform, settling in for the wait, Yousaf discovered another problem. He’d left his hat behind on the first train.
The next Gold line train arrived two minutes behind schedule. On board headed north, Barbosa gave a live update to a TV reporter. The train was stopped again, this time just north of the Chamblee station.
“It’s good. Actually no, it has not been good. It’s been disastrous,” Barbosa said. “Omar forgot his hat on the train, the train is now stopped, we missed a transfer at the Lindbergh station. (But) it’s all good. Positivity.”
“It could all be worse,” Plese added.
The group started right when evening peak hours began at 3 p.m. Trains are scheduled to run every 10 minutes during peak service, a level of frequency they hoped would help them finish the trip in under three hours.
Weekend headways are longer. This weekend, for instance, trains on the Gold and Red lines are scheduled to come every 20 minutes. On the Blue and Green line, it’s every 15.
The slowdowns the group experienced didn’t cause long delays but they show how seconds can be the difference between a passenger catching a connecting train or not.
Southbound, they ran into more hiccups. The train pulled into the Arts Center station two minutes behind schedule. Then the train held long at Civic Center.
In Doraville, Troxell had encouraged the group to sit in the last train car to make the Five Points transfer easier. As soon as the doors opened, the group exploded from the train like a wound-up jack-in-the-box.
Their mad dash up the escalator wasn’t enough. They watched the two-car train to Bankhead pull away without them, while Barbosa asked why the train was only two cars long. The platform at Bankhead can’t accommodate trains any longer — one reason MARTA has embarked on a project to renovate the station.
‘We’ve done it, boys’
They decided to take the next Blue line train.
That decision added an extra transfer to their route, because after turning around at Bankhead, it put them eastbound on the Green line train. That line stops at the Edgewood/Candler Park station.
They had to wait to get back on the Blue line to Indian Creek, the easternmost terminus. Once there, they missed another transfer headed back to Five Points.
“Emotions, feelings, they just get the better of you,” Barbosa said. “It’s just frustrating that it’s just so inconsistent. I mean, it could be the reason people miss a job interview or just not make it at all. The disappointment I’m feeling now, of constantly just checking the schedule and not being able to get it, is probably what mirrors how a lot of people in Atlanta feel.”
The group’s spirits were flagging. Then at the Decatur station, three men walked on the train and excitedly declared they too were aiming for the record. Their own stopwatches put them about 10 minutes ahead.
“This is the biggest plot twist that ever plot-twisted,” said Aleeisha Carr, a content creator who was documenting the group’s activities for MARTA.
Jonathan Tennies said he saw news coverage about the record attempt and he and his friends decided to give it a try themselves, albeit unofficially.
“Technically it doesn’t count,” Tennies said. “But we just thought we’d compete in the spirt of competing.”
The Chicago team greeted the Atlanta group warmly, then Barbosa challenged them to friendly rap battle.
“We’re in Atlanta, MARTA, we’re here to beat you, you’re unofficial but we’re official,” Barbosa shouted. “Your turn your turn, I want to hear.”
Barbosa said he was thrilled to have inspired another group. Beyond the glory of a world record, their goal was to promote public transit as safe and fun. Even with the transfer issues, they were having a great time and felt safe, he said. Other riders had been friendly and helpful.
MARTA officials stress the system is safe, and getting safer, but acknowledge the opposite perception many have. On Thursday before the trio set out, Police Chief Scott Kreher told MARTA’s Board of Directors that aggravated assaults were down 27% last year compared to the year before. Robbery was down 34% and crime overall was down 28%.
Back at Five Points, the group made one final sprint to catch a southbound train. Soon after, their train rolled into the Airport station.
Simmons, the timekeeper, stopped the clock as soon as the three men set foot on the platform. Three hours, 21 minutes and 37 seconds.
“We’ve done it, boys,” Barbosa said.
MARTA interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt met the trio at the Airport station to offer congratulations. The record isn’t official until Guinness certifies it, and Barbosa acknowledged there’s a good chance someone else could beat it. Tennies told the AJC in an email that his group finished at 3 hours, 9 minutes and 32 seconds.
Barbosa said they want to set the record at every other U.S. transit agency. A few, like Boston, New York and Washington D.C., have records already. Others do not.
And he’s already planning to come back to Atlanta to try for a better time.
“If we just get a few good transfers, we can easily get sub-three hours,” he said. “I’m so competitive that I’m going to come here very soon, and I invite the city of Atlanta, whoever wants to do it with me, to join.”
— Video Producer Ellen Rolfes contributed to this story.
About the Author
Sara Gregory covers transportation for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Previously, she covered local government in DeKalb County. A Charlotte native, she joined the paper in 2023 after working at newspapers in South Carolina and Virginia.
