This November, thanks to Mayor Kasim Reed and the Atlanta City Council, Atlanta’s residents will have the opportunity to radically transform how Atlanta lives, works, and plays over the next few decades. On November 8, when we go vote for President, we will also vote on a half-penny sales tax to significantly expand and enhance MARTA service throughout the City of Atlanta, the first such expansion vote in 40 years.
But before MARTA could ask Atlanta for that additional investment, we had serious work to do. Over the last four years, thanks to the leadership of our General Manager Keith Parker, and a lot of hard work by many people, MARTA has turned itself around. Through a redoubled commitment to fiscal discipline and top-to-bottom management reforms, we just concluded the fourth fiscal year in a row with a budget surplus, and have rebuilt our cash reserves to approximately $250 million. We’ve done that while increasing service levels and without raising fares, and we’ve also been able to reinvest in our employees, ensuring that our hard-working men and women are paid fairly.
MARTA is rolling out new technology to improve safety and customer service, including putting security cameras on all of our vehicles. MARTA’s Police Department has a pilot program to give our officers body cameras. We are making Wi-Fi available in our stations and vehicles, and are developing technology to allow customers to use their smartphones to pay rather than a Breeze card.
If Atlanta approves the half-penny in November, MARTA will immediately use that new revenue to increase the frequency and coverage of our bus network, including new types of buses that will bring our service to new routes, and in new neighborhoods. For many existing routes, this will mean bus service that runs more often, and for longer hours.
We will also use that new investment to multiply the scope and reach of our rail network, so that many more Atlantans will live and work within easy walking distance of our train lines. Dozens of miles of new light rail lines running in a dedicated right of way will ensure that Atlantans and our visitors will have an easier time using the system to get to and from where they’re going on a regular basis. Whether someone then chooses to ride a bus, walk, bike, use a Zipcar, or take Uber or Lyft to go the ‘last mile,’ vastly expanding the rail network means that much, much more of Atlanta will be within a mile of a rail line.
Using guiding principles that emphasize equity, new ridership, mobility to job and activity centers, and flexibility for long-term projected transportation needs, MARTA’s project list features new and improved bus service, new light-rail lines, community circulators, and in-fill stations on our existing rail lines. Our project list also targets areas of Atlanta that have been historically underserved by public transit so that we can enhance economic mobility and ensure economic success will be enjoyed throughout Atlanta.
And for metro Atlanta outside of the city, we have not forgotten you. Atlanta would not have this opportunity but for the support of Gov. Nathan Deal, House Speaker David Ralston, Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, Sen. Brandon Beach, and the House and Senate Democratic leaders, particularly Rep. Calvin Smyre. While their leadership gave us the opportunity to focus on expanding and enhancing throughout the City of Atlanta in 2016, we remain committed to pursuing additional expansion into North and South Fulton, DeKalb, and elsewhere when and where local elected officials invite us.
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