State agency could oversee regional mass transit

The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority may end up overseeing regional mass transit.  On Monday the state commission charged with proposing legislation to knit together metro Atlanta's disparate mass transit agencies issued a report saying an existing state agency should serve that purpose.  Legislators have suggested in interviews that that would be GRTA.  They said that it would serve as an umbrella over local agencies like MARTA and Gwinnett County Transit, which would continue to operate their individual services.

The former head of a transit authority that runs under a similar model, in Chicago, has said a more unified model of a single regional transit operator is better, if the political will can be found to create one.  Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said that he agreed but the Chicago model was a necessary first step here.