marta could’ve been a bit smarta

marta. the metro atlanta rapid transit authority. perhaps the most ineffective execution of public transportation i’ve ever known. i am not speaking of the buses, because they do tend to roam far and wide (when they are not threatening my life with random changes of lane and spur of the moment brakings), but of the train. for the $1.75 you spend, you’ve only just so far you can go. rather than criss-crossing the metro area in a logical pattern, the marta lines make a simple cross through the city, each going to one of the four points of the compass. if you wanted to go anywhere within those 90 degree angles, you’re just out of luck. for most of us, the marta train really only holds one purpose: getting you to the airport.

but while googling for information about a completely unrelated topic, i stumbled upon a writeup about the original plans for the marta train lines. now, this still fails to reach so much of the area, but it shows that at one time the line could have reached (via a spur) over into the emory and north druid hills area, or (via another spur) all the way over to northside drive. want to know more? go here.

August 29, 2002 – 11:26 am | By Thomas | Posted in Atlanta | Comments (11)
  • JO

    Yes that is why if you talk to old people you findout they are PISSED about that, because originally when they took away the trolly cars and Athens train MARTA was a huge promis.. Yeah believe it or not Atlanta had Trolly cars and they went EVERYWHERE in the city…We also had a speedy train that went from Atlanta to Athens for the college kids.. *sighs..

  • H

    the proposed system still would have been woefully inadequate, because it is essentially only two lines. a third, possibly circular, line, would increase marta’s usefulness exponetially. and i have to say that while marta’s busses do reach far and wide, they do so in indecipherable patterns and seemingly only at odd hours on days that end in ‘q’.

  • http://www.netcom.com/~ginger_g/main.htm Ginger

    You’d be surprised…or not…by the plans Atlanta once had. Georgia State actually offers a great class entitled “History of Metropolitan Atlanta.” It details the proposals and criticisms of MARTA as well as many other ideas that groups such as ARC are still considering. Good stuff!

  • http://www.livejournal.com/~sofit Sofit

    indeed, coming from Boston, my first three and a half years here in Atlanta were miserable – until i finally got my (first!) car. how different my life would have been had those few extra train stops been in existence. as it was, i had no life, thanks to the silly bus system described by H.

    Ginger, who teaches that class at GA State?

  • http://www.thezipman.com Zip

    Martha Stewart can lick my…

    Oh, MARTA…

    …never mind!

  • Nikki

    Well, apparently there was once hope. Two words: London Underground. Makes MARTA green with envy.

  • Darrell

    I never really got the point of MARTA trains. I always felt like they were an extension of the train at the airport.

  • http://members.telocity.com/bonkothemime Bonko

    Marta most definately needs to expand…’specially down here to Peachtree City. Too bad the Peachtree Citizens are scared of the “bad element” invading. It’s a bitch to have to go all the way to College Park just so I can ride Marta to work….but at least it practically stops right where I worked, at the Floyd Building.

  • http://www.netcom.com/~ginger_g/main.htm ginger

    The class at Georgia State was taught by four different professors over the semester, but Professors Truman A Hartshorn and Charles L. Jaret (who teaches a mean History of the Holocaust class) were the two who headed the course.

  • H

    i actually wouldn’t be that surprised at the plans atlanta once had. i used to think it had the potential to become a truly great city, but it didn’t take long for the (non-)planners to irreversibly **** it up, especially in the 1990′s. now i find it unlivable, and that makes me sad.

  • Bil Turner

    Yes, I really AM old enough to remember when Atlanta had great, gleaming, quiet,NON-POLLUTING “Silversides” Trollybusses (NOT streetcars on rails… electric busses) running all over the place. Then at some time while I was away, traveling the world on DoD contracts the @#%$&&****@#* “Powers That Be” (Were?) up and trashed the whole system, because the overhead wires were “unsightly”. Must’ve been in the middle sixties when Lady Bird J was tearing down all the Burma Shave signs. I recall passing a junk… beg your pardon… SALVAGE yard to the south of the city and seeing literally hundreds of the beautiful things stacked, sadly rusting away, in a solid phalynx 3 high. I understand a few were sold to Mexico City (though I never saw one when I was there), but truely… what an unpardonable waste, particularly in view of the Great Arab Oil Choke-Off only a few years later. Oh, didn’tcha know? The juice to operate those gems was, at least partly, produces by generators running on the waste Methane gas produced at the sewage disposal plant. Oh sigh!

    What wonderful progress Atlanta has made.

    sadly,
    bil turner (no, not related)
    mipper@aol.com