MARTA: 30 years and counting
MARTA is marking 30 years of rail service, and officials and patrons braved a rain-soaked Friday to celebrate with a series of events. Here is a look at MARTA's past and present and some questions about its future.
TIMELINE
1960s
Planners recommend 66 miles of rapid rail in five counties for Atlanta mass transit. The MARTA Act passes the Legislature, and Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett counties vote in referendums to get involved. Cobb County votes to stay out.
1970s
In referendums, only DeKalb and Fulton voters approve a 1-cent sales tax to fund mass transit. MARTA starts operating buses and building train lines. On June 30, 1979, the first MARTA train leaves Avondale station for downtown Atlanta.
1980s
MARTA stations open up and down the lines, including at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
1990s
More new stations, including one for the first time beyond the Perimeter, at Indian Creek.
2000s
Sandy Springs and North Springs stations open. MARTA opens its “transit-oriented development” at the Lindbergh station: an office, condo and restaurant complex designed to reduce people’s car travel between home, work and play. MARTA dumps tokens and adopts the Breeze card.
2010s
Who knows? Transit advocates would love to see MARTA form the backbone of a new, seamless metro Atlanta transit system stretching far into the suburbs. But that would take new money, big money, green-lighted by the Legislature. In the mean time MARTA's existing financial structure is tanking -- making Friday's downpour a little fitting.
MARTA FACTS
Ridership: People take 488,000 MARTA trips a day. Since the rail service was born in 1979, it has carried more than 4 billion riders. It's the ninth-largest system in the country.
The buses: Nearly 600 MARTA buses serve 130 routes dotted with drive about 1,000 route miles a day, passing more than 755 bus shelters.
The trains: Rail lines span 48.1 miles and carry 338 rail cars through 38 stations.
Employees: About 5,000 people work for MARTA, including more than 300 police officers.
Funding: MARTA has received some major federal grants and occasional state grants, but its main source of funding is a 1-cent sales tax paid in DeKalb and Fulton counties. As with most governments and agencies nowadays, declining tax revenues have thrown MARTA into a financial tailspin. MARTA officials say it is the only major transit agency in the country that receives no sustained state funding.
Sources: MARTA; “Assessment of Community Planning for Mass Transit”