MARTA: Derailment, `significant damage’ after heavy winds toppled tree
A multiday disruption on MARTA’s Red and Gold lines in December was the result of a derailment that caused “significant damage” to both the train and tracks, according to a MARTA police incident report.
The train, which had 118 passengers onboard, was traveling southbound from the Lindbergh Station when it derailed about 9 a.m. on Dec. 29 after the train was “struck by a fallen tree,” the report says. Passengers were offloaded onto a rescue train and no injuries were reported by staff or riders.
MARTA alerted customers to a fallen tree on the tracks and shared updates about the resulting delays on social media when the incident happened.
But the transit agency did not disclose that a train had derailed, a rare occurrence that is considered by the Federal Transit Administration to be a major safety event — and which triggers reporting requirements to both the FTA and the Georgia Department of Transportation.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution learned about the derailment from reviewing MARTA’s public records log, which included a request for records related to the derailment from an unknown party.
Asked about that request, MARTA spokesperson Stephany Fisher confirmed there was a derailment and told the AJC that high winds toppled the tree.
“The tree damaged the tracks, wayside equipment and caused the derailment of the front axle of the train,” Fisher said in an email. “No one was injured and passengers were safely offloaded.”
MARTA implemented single tracking between the Lindbergh and Arts Center stations so that crews could remove the tree, rerail the train and repair the damage to the southbound tracks, Fisher said.
Full rail service was restored about 74 hours later, on Jan. 1.
Repairs happened over the New Year’s holiday. Fisher said MARTA shared service information with Mercedes-Benz Stadium, State Farm Arena and other venues hosting events.
“There were no service impacts or incidents reported during the many New Year’s Eve events and celebrations,” she said.
Fisher did not respond to additional questions for more than a week, then declined to answer them, including some that were eventually answered by the police report provided in response to the unknown party’s records request.
“Further requests for information should go through the open records portal,” she said.
It’s not clear when the tree fell — whether it fell as the train was passing or whether it fell earlier but wasn’t visible to the operator in time to stop. The police report says the train was “struck by a fallen tree.” Fisher didn’t answer questions seeking to clarify the order of events.
The AJC filed its own records request Friday. MARTA’s public records office estimated that it could provide records by Feb. 20. The agency responded to the unknown party’s records request last week, providing the requestor with the incident report and posting it publicly in its portal.
It is unclear whether there is surveillance video footage of the derailment.
The original records request sought video footage in addition to the incident report, and MARTA uploaded three video clips that the agency said were responsive to the request. However, the footage is labeled as being from a different train than the one identified in the police report.
Additionally, the time stamp on the videos begins more than half an hour after the incident and appears to show a northbound train passing through stations such as Garnett and Five Points — areas not associated with the incident.
Told about the discrepancies, Fisher said in a follow-up email that she had alerted MARTA’s legal team, which handles public records requests. No additional records have been publicly posted since then.
A separate request to the Georgia Department of Transportation for records related to the derailment is still pending.
Derailments are rare. Across the country, there were at least 24 derailments last year, an undercount because of a three-month lag in the FTA safety incident database. The MARTA derailment from December is not included in the federal data set yet because of the lag.
Before the December derailment, MARTA trains had derailed 21 times since 2014, according to FTA safety data. Seven of the derailments happened in rail yards when trains were not in service, and the remaining happened on main lines.
The last derailment happened in December 2024. MARTA officials said in a postmortem briefing to MARTA’s Board of Directors that a series of human errors was to blame in that instance.
A MARTA derailment in 2021 also involved a tree, according to the FTA database. That incident occurred after tree cutting was completed in an area of trackway between the Bankhead and Ashby stations.
It’s unclear whether the fallen tree in the most recent incident came from within MARTA’s right-of-way or from private property. Fisher did not respond to a question about what efforts MARTA takes to try to prevent trees and limbs from falling on the tracks.
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 AJC in 2023 after working at newspapers in South Carolina and Virginia.
