It's a tough week for the Atlanta Streetcar. The transit system was hit with a double-whammy of bad news after a vandal hopped a city fence overnight Monday and spray-painted multiple cars, just as an internal audit revealed multiple deficiencies in the streetcar's management and safety operations.
The audit, which was conducted in July and released to the city council this week by Mayor Kasim Reed’s office, found that neither the previous manager nor current director of streetcar services had read its system safety program plan. The manager, who has since left the project, also hadn’t read the system’s security and emergency preparedness plan.
What’s more, the director of streetcar services “denied any active management responsibilities for the system, even though the auditors cited the passages describing the tasks and responsibilities directly from the relevant documentation,” states the executive summary, prepared by Kensington Consulting.
City officials, who partner with MARTA and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District on the project, say the graffiti incident is unrelated to concerns raised in the audit. But at least one councilmember wants answers about just who is responsible when it comes to oversight.
To learn more how a graffiti artist was able to spend 20 minutes alone with the streetcars, and what the city has done to correct concerns raised in the audit, visit MYAJC.com.
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