Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
ATLANTA – Since 1971, more than 3.5 billion people – or 10 times the entire population of the U.S. – have caught a Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) bus or train.
That makes MARTA the ninth largest transit system in North America.
MARTA began its bus service in 1972 and its rail service followed nine years later. Today, MARTA offers bus, rail and paratransit service
MARTA’s origins date back to 1965, when the state Legislature formed a planning agency to plan and build a public transportation system in the City of Atlanta and in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties. However, it would be seven years until Fulton and DeKalb counties, along with the City of Atlanta, approved a referendum levying a 1 percent sales tax to finance MARTA’s construction.
Gwinnett and Clayton counties never passed the referendum. And as a result, MARTA does not operated in those counties.
MARTA’s East Line began operating on June 30, 1979 and its West Line began its service on Dec. 22, 1979. It would be almost another two years, on Dec. 4, 1981, until the North-South line would begin its train service. And at that time, trains only ran between Garnett Street and North Ave. A station serving Hartsfield International Airport would open June 18, 1988, on the South Line.
June 8, 1996, marked a major addition to MARTA’a rail service. The North Line opened and opened and would eventually extend to North Springs. Plans for additional tracks into North Fulton County have been discussed but not yet realized.
The top 10 busiest MARTA stations are: Five Points (57,000 daily passengers), Lindbergh Center (23,400), Hamilton E. Holmes (22,000), College Park (18,300), Peachtree Center (17,800), West End (17,400), North Avenue (15,000), Kensington (14,600), Arts Center (14,500) and Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport (13,500).
As of 2003, MARTA has relied on the Federal Transit Administration as a key partner in its development, providing 58 percent of the $3.1 billion capital cost.
As Atlanta grows, and additions are needed, MARTA will likely extend its current rail lines. Already, it has identified an expansion of the West Line as a top priority. The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) included the West Line to Fulton Industrial Boulevard in its Metropolitan Atlanta Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) for service by the year 2010. The line surfaced as a possibility as early as 1971.
In the closer future, MARTA is developing the new Armour Drive Rail Services Facility (RSF). The center will provide the system with additional rail car storage and service capacity and will accommodate 100 new cars currently on order.
The facility includes a rail car storage yard, rail and switching system, traction power substation (TPSS), gap breaker building, cleaner platform and building, train wash facility, industrial waste treatment facility, and Maintenance of Way (MOW) enclosure, MARTA said.