Our numbers tell the story.
The eighth largest multi-modal transit system in the nation, MARTA takes nearly 400,000 passengers to work, school and other destinations every day. With 350 rail cars running on 38 track miles, 103 bus routes, and 9,000 bus stops, we do so with a 95 percent on-time performance rate for rail service — one of the best in the country. Then too, MARTA is among the safest public transportation systems nationwide with the third largest police department in Georgia. As we deploy cameras on every train and bus, and all 38 rail stations, we expect those numbers to continue to improve.
We are proud to be on our best-ever financial footing — achieved through fiscal discipline — which lead to nearly a quarter-billion dollars in cash reserves and greatly improved bond ratings. Customer satisfaction is at its highest in over a decade, and we continue to look for new ways to enhance the rider experience. Right now, we are hard at work ensuring that our riders will soon have wi-fi service on all of our buses and trains, including in the tunnels. We also aim to have mobile ticketing by the end of 2018, so that you’ll be able to use your smart phone to get on and off the system.
Our riders are a diverse cross-section of the region’s population — including commuters, students, business travelers, people living with disabilities, sports fans and concert goers. Today, MARTA connects metro Atlanta in a way that creates community, fosters greater equity, and advances prosperity for a more livable region.
We’re also hard at work on tomorrow.
The City of Atlanta’s decision to entrust MARTA with $2.5 billion in expansion funding will enable us to radically transform how service is delivered in our urban core, enabling hundreds of thousands of new residents to live, work, and play in news ways. Our newest member, Clayton County, has already seen its bus ridership increase by 17 percent in just under two years. Serving 16,000 weekday riders, two of Clayton’s bus routes are consistently among the systems’ highest in ridership.
Fulton County spent 2017 partnering with MARTA and the Atlanta Regional Commission to develop a great plan to increase fixed-route service in both North and South Fulton. We hope that Fulton voters will have the chance to approve and fund those plans in 2018. DeKalb County, too, is assessing its transit needs, and is pursuing expansion funding to bring those plans to life.
The region is changing and so are we.
As state leaders consider the path forward— which may include directly funding transit for the first time, we welcome their partnership and the opportunity. A variety of factors require a layered and measured approach to public transit. One size does not fit all and we must meet communities at their point of need, when they are ready for us.
As the discussion moves forward, MARTA’s existing relationships with Atlanta and Clayton, DeKalb, and Fulton counties should be honored in a way that recognizes the decades of local funding and ridership that built the system’s central infrastructure. Similarly, we encourage the General Assembly to pursue policies that will both enhance the transit already being provided in the system’s core and expand multi-modal service to connect the region, not just one or the other. We strongly support thoughtful measures to build on what’s working well already, and to give local communities the tools they need when they are ready to step forward.
We are a ready and willing partner. We don’t think we’re perfect by any stretch, of course, but we are proud of our fiscal and operational track record over the past several years. Whatever the state decides, we are committed to continuing to improve how we connect and serve communities. In the years to come, MARTA will deliver the routine excellence our riders expect and deserve every day.
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