When visiting family in upstate New York, I usually take the Metro-North rail line from Grand Central Station in Manhattan, which glides up the east bank of the Hudson River to my stop in Beacon, just south of Poughkeepsie. It leaves roughly every half-hour during peak travel times, and every hour otherwise.
Like many people, I consult a schedule before I go, lest I wind up with a lot of time to kill on the platform.
This routine reminds me of riding MARTA. I also consult a schedule when using MARTA trains or buses, in order to budget my time productively.
But here’s the rub: I shouldn’t have to.
While Metro-North is a commuter rail service, MARTA’s mission is “rapid” urban transit. It says so right in its name — Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.
But on what other major rapid-transit system do you need to check the running time? In most major cities, you just show up at the station, knowing service will be along momentarily. Here, in Decatur or College Park or Dunwoody, you find yourself plotting and planning. And stressing. Because if you miss your ride, it won’t be back for a while.
Since budget and service cuts were enacted in 2010, MARTA trains operate roughly 15 minutes apart, with buses every 25 to 30 minutes, for much of the day. That’s less frequent than many other transit systems among the 10 largest in the United States (MARTA is ninth in size). In Boston, the “headways” — defined as intervals or time between trains or buses — are often less than 10 minutes and as frequent as six minutes.
Recently, the Atlanta streetcar, now under construction, made headlines when it was revealed that wait times along the 1.3-mile route would be 15 minutes. Mayor Kasim Reed even spoke urgently about raising money to increase the frequency — all for a system that, at least for starters, will cater to tourists and lunch excursions, not commuters.
Think about that for a minute: We’re going to have the same wait times for a streetcar to the World of Coke as for a rapid-transit train in rush hour to the world’s busiest airport — and it’s the streetcar people who are dissatisfied!
MARTA officials are aware of the frustrations. Recently, they told me the top complaints the agency receives are about service and bus-operator attitudes. But increasing frequency is a complex, and expensive, business.
“It’s an additional bus or train (along the route) in order to increase it,” said John McMath, supervisor of bus scheduling. “To increase that frequency, we have to add a vehicle, which includes an operator, power, maintenance.”
Said Don Williams, senior director of transit system planning, “When we start looking at adding additional service, we’re talking about adding money to the budget, and we may not have it.”
By increasing rail wait times for the 2010 budget reductions, MARTA saved $1.5 million, agency spokesman Lyle V. Harris said. Yet that figure seems low for an agency with a $434.9 million operating budget — a business whose Job One is moving people through town quickly.
CEO Keith Parker’s proposed new budget reportedly would put MARTA on a path to restore, by 2018, half the service cut three years ago. Is that enough to stop the customer fallout? Ridership on buses and trains combined was down 8 percent in 2012. Train ridership has fallen 15 percent since 2001.
MARTA is considering a 25-cent fare increase in the coming years. But Harris says the agency is serious about trying to restore service. (MARTA is also coming out with phone and computer apps that show customers where buses and trains are on their route, to help them time their travels. And it’s working with Georgia Tech on developing others.)
“The expectation, the hope, is that if we start seeing some of these savings” from belt-tightening measures suggested in the recent KPMG audit, “and if we start turning around our ridership numbers and our sales-tax revenues, we may be able to avoid a fare increase. And we might be able to restore some of the service cut in 2010,” Harris said.
Anything to put the “rapid” back in MARTA.
