About a month ago I visited Atlanta. Atlanta's MARTA remained the only metro / heavy rail system in the U.S. that I did not explore in any detail or even see up until that point. So, I decided to use three days of our spring break to have a little rail vacation and rectify this very last omission.
MARTA
Atlanta's MARTA is a modern metrorail system similar to those in Washington DC and San Francisco Bay Area (BART). It was established at about the same time and was built to the same modern standards: spacious stations, wide platforms and passageways, fast running trains (definitely above 100 km/h), larger distances between stations, large park-and-ride lots at outer stations, etc. Some observations:
Positives:
‑ Trains are very fast. A very pleasant experience. Track is mostly in good condition, although I remember a couple of rough stretches.
‑ While some stations begin showing their age, overall, they are in good condition and well maintained.
‑ Stations have many entrances/exits and good pedestrian distribution systems at each exit, which are well designed. This is in stark contrast with systems like Los Angeles, where "a single whole in the ground" seems to be the norm.
‑ The system is clean (at least by relatively low American standards). In fact, I was shocked to see cleaning employees at many stations throughout the system, who were actually cleaning the system, for example, wiping escalators' handbelts with some sanitary solution. This is not a common sight in most U.S. systems. Cleanliness is definitely above average. No bad smells or physiological fluids, even in bad parts of town.
‑ Despite Atlanta's notorious crime reputation, the system felt safe in all of its parts.
‑ People (passengers) are better behaving that in some older systems, particularly, New York or Chicago. No one was playing music without headphones (a big problem in New York City), no one was eating on the trains, no one was yelling all the time. Pretty pleasant.
Negatives:
‑ The system features extremely low ridership. During the day, I would sometimes find myself to be the only passenger in a rail car or the only person in a rail station. I think a big part of the problem is that MARTA has completely decimated its bus system. There are very few feeder bus routes with any decent frequency. You can get only so much ridership from people walking to your stations or parking at your stations. Feeder bus network is extremely important, and Atlanta gets very low marks on such a feeder network. Bus terminals at many rail stations sit underused or even completely/partially closed. This is not a good feature of the transit system. They need to increase bus service frequency, this would help to build rail ridership and fill their running trains. The current bus "system" hurts the rail system's ridership.
‑ The rail system has an extraordinary number of unnecessary audio announcements on trains. Customers are constantly and continuously bombarded by audio pollution. And these are not just station announcements (which are also made too frequently, in my opinion), there are many totally useless announcements as well. For example: "Everyone would like to enjoy a pleasant ride. Please review MARTA's code of conduct at itsmatra.com." Seriously? Does one really need to hear a meaningless announcement of this sort in two languages every 5 minutes? What is its informational content? And there are many others, equally senseless and meaningless announcements. This rail system gets nominated to be the worst in the U.S. in terms of the extreme number of announcements. In essence, the loudspeakers are talking almost continuously. Cut it down! They need to reduce the number and the frequency of announcements drastically. There is absolutely no justification for subjecting MARTA's passengers to such a horrendous amount of unnecessary noise.
‑ Blue line had delays on all three days. They seemed to be unable to keep the schedule on this line throughout my visit. On a couple of occasions, I had to wait for the train for almost half an hour! I have no idea if there was a good reason, but with a train every 12 minutes, there is little excuse for such poor schedule adherence.
‑ While the daytime frequency is quite adequate (6 minutes on the trunk lines and 12 minutes on branches, further reduced to 5 and 10 minutes respectively during rush hours), the night and weekend frequency is very poor: a train once in 20 minutes. Especially at night, when Red and Green lines are converted to shuttles and do not provide direct service to the main transfer point (Five Points) in Downtown Atlanta, it is virtually impossible to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. Around 9 pm service frequency on the busier north-south line drops from "every 6 minutes" down to "every 20 minutes". This is unacceptable. I witnessed a young couple entering a station and seeing sign "the next train is in 18 minutes" and asking each other: "Are they serious?" Indeed, MARTA cannot be serious with such frequencies. This is pathetic for an urban rail system.
‑ The busiest branch seems to be the northern end of the Red line. Ridership on this branch is healthiest and heaviest. This can be observed by a naked eye, but I am sure there is data to support this assertion. Yet, this is precisely the line that gets cut short during evening hours. Why? Why the heck do they run night shuttles on this line? Why not to cut short the less busy Gold line? Is anybody thinking? At night, Red and Gold service patterns need to be swapped.
At the very least, I would make the Red line shuttle run all the way to Five Points in the evenings. This section between Five Points and Lindbergh Center is the busiest section on the entire system, and there are turnaround facilities just south of Five Points, so this seems to be a no-brainer. This would make the system infinitely more convenient for practical use in the evenings and at night. And it would not even cost that much: they would need just one extra Red line train, given their current 20-minute night-time intervals on all branches.
Peculiarities:
‑ The Peachtree Center station in the crown jewel of this rail system. The station was carved in bedrock and has bare walls, well, made of rock. It looks stunning. It also has a well developed system of exits to several points throughout Downtown. This is the only deep station on this rail system. A "must see".
‑ All platforms are 180 m long and can fit 8-car trains, but only 6-car trains are running on the three main lines (Red, Gold, and Blue). However, there is one exception: the platform at the Bankhead station is only long enough for two cars. This is the main reason why the Green line operates with two-car trains at all times. Longer trains would simply not fit at the Bankhead station's platform. This seems to be rather shortsighted. I have no idea why this station was built in such a substandard way, but they will need to rectify this shortcoming sooner or later.
Conclusions:
Overall, MARTA is a good system. However, there is room for improvement. My top three recommendations:
1. Drastically reduce the number and the frequency of in-train announcements. This costs nothing, but makes a huge difference for passengers.
2. Extend the night shuttle on the Red line to the Five Points station and thus reduce service frequency on the busiest portion of the system between Five Points and Lindbergh Center from "once in 20 minutes" to "once in 10 minutes". This will cost very little, as they will need to run only one more train and have one more operator in service during evening/night hours.
In addition, swap night service patterns on the Red and Gold lines. Ideally, the Red line should run all the way south to the airport, and the Gold line should terminate at Five Points (not at Lindbergh Center).
3. Improve the bus feeder network. A bus once an hour is a ridiculous frequency for a populated and growing city like Atlanta. Run them every 15 minutes or less and be surprised with a sudden surge of ridership. Houston did this just a couple of years ago, follow their suite. This is higher cost, but still much cheaper than building new lines or stations.
Atlanta streetcar
I really don't want to offend anyone here. But my softest, nicest expression about this rail system is this: What a pathetic joke! The streetcar is very slow. It runs in street traffic and gets stuck in traffic. There are no published timetables. Streetcars run empty. No fare enforcement. No fare integration with MARTA. Only one-way connection to MARTA. The streetcar was not running one day I was in Atlanta, but no announcements, fare machines are operational and still sell 2-hour and 1-day tickets, even though there will be no streetcars until the next day (yes, I wasted a dollar). I found only one positive: nice vehicles and nice seats with low-back support. Everything else is pretty much mediocre. The grade is C.
There are also two airport people movers in the Atlanta airport (which is the largest in the U.S.), one in the secure zone and one outside, but they are really no different from other similar airport systems, so I will save my breath here.
Overall, my conclusion is that Atlanta is worth a two or three day visit for a railfan.
MARTA
Atlanta's MARTA is a modern metrorail system similar to those in Washington DC and San Francisco Bay Area (BART). It was established at about the same time and was built to the same modern standards: spacious stations, wide platforms and passageways, fast running trains (definitely above 100 km/h), larger distances between stations, large park-and-ride lots at outer stations, etc. Some observations:
Positives:
‑ Trains are very fast. A very pleasant experience. Track is mostly in good condition, although I remember a couple of rough stretches.
‑ While some stations begin showing their age, overall, they are in good condition and well maintained.
‑ Stations have many entrances/exits and good pedestrian distribution systems at each exit, which are well designed. This is in stark contrast with systems like Los Angeles, where "a single whole in the ground" seems to be the norm.
‑ The system is clean (at least by relatively low American standards). In fact, I was shocked to see cleaning employees at many stations throughout the system, who were actually cleaning the system, for example, wiping escalators' handbelts with some sanitary solution. This is not a common sight in most U.S. systems. Cleanliness is definitely above average. No bad smells or physiological fluids, even in bad parts of town.
‑ Despite Atlanta's notorious crime reputation, the system felt safe in all of its parts.
‑ People (passengers) are better behaving that in some older systems, particularly, New York or Chicago. No one was playing music without headphones (a big problem in New York City), no one was eating on the trains, no one was yelling all the time. Pretty pleasant.
Negatives:
‑ The system features extremely low ridership. During the day, I would sometimes find myself to be the only passenger in a rail car or the only person in a rail station. I think a big part of the problem is that MARTA has completely decimated its bus system. There are very few feeder bus routes with any decent frequency. You can get only so much ridership from people walking to your stations or parking at your stations. Feeder bus network is extremely important, and Atlanta gets very low marks on such a feeder network. Bus terminals at many rail stations sit underused or even completely/partially closed. This is not a good feature of the transit system. They need to increase bus service frequency, this would help to build rail ridership and fill their running trains. The current bus "system" hurts the rail system's ridership.
‑ The rail system has an extraordinary number of unnecessary audio announcements on trains. Customers are constantly and continuously bombarded by audio pollution. And these are not just station announcements (which are also made too frequently, in my opinion), there are many totally useless announcements as well. For example: "Everyone would like to enjoy a pleasant ride. Please review MARTA's code of conduct at itsmatra.com." Seriously? Does one really need to hear a meaningless announcement of this sort in two languages every 5 minutes? What is its informational content? And there are many others, equally senseless and meaningless announcements. This rail system gets nominated to be the worst in the U.S. in terms of the extreme number of announcements. In essence, the loudspeakers are talking almost continuously. Cut it down! They need to reduce the number and the frequency of announcements drastically. There is absolutely no justification for subjecting MARTA's passengers to such a horrendous amount of unnecessary noise.
‑ Blue line had delays on all three days. They seemed to be unable to keep the schedule on this line throughout my visit. On a couple of occasions, I had to wait for the train for almost half an hour! I have no idea if there was a good reason, but with a train every 12 minutes, there is little excuse for such poor schedule adherence.
‑ While the daytime frequency is quite adequate (6 minutes on the trunk lines and 12 minutes on branches, further reduced to 5 and 10 minutes respectively during rush hours), the night and weekend frequency is very poor: a train once in 20 minutes. Especially at night, when Red and Green lines are converted to shuttles and do not provide direct service to the main transfer point (Five Points) in Downtown Atlanta, it is virtually impossible to get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. Around 9 pm service frequency on the busier north-south line drops from "every 6 minutes" down to "every 20 minutes". This is unacceptable. I witnessed a young couple entering a station and seeing sign "the next train is in 18 minutes" and asking each other: "Are they serious?" Indeed, MARTA cannot be serious with such frequencies. This is pathetic for an urban rail system.
‑ The busiest branch seems to be the northern end of the Red line. Ridership on this branch is healthiest and heaviest. This can be observed by a naked eye, but I am sure there is data to support this assertion. Yet, this is precisely the line that gets cut short during evening hours. Why? Why the heck do they run night shuttles on this line? Why not to cut short the less busy Gold line? Is anybody thinking? At night, Red and Gold service patterns need to be swapped.
At the very least, I would make the Red line shuttle run all the way to Five Points in the evenings. This section between Five Points and Lindbergh Center is the busiest section on the entire system, and there are turnaround facilities just south of Five Points, so this seems to be a no-brainer. This would make the system infinitely more convenient for practical use in the evenings and at night. And it would not even cost that much: they would need just one extra Red line train, given their current 20-minute night-time intervals on all branches.
Peculiarities:
‑ The Peachtree Center station in the crown jewel of this rail system. The station was carved in bedrock and has bare walls, well, made of rock. It looks stunning. It also has a well developed system of exits to several points throughout Downtown. This is the only deep station on this rail system. A "must see".
‑ All platforms are 180 m long and can fit 8-car trains, but only 6-car trains are running on the three main lines (Red, Gold, and Blue). However, there is one exception: the platform at the Bankhead station is only long enough for two cars. This is the main reason why the Green line operates with two-car trains at all times. Longer trains would simply not fit at the Bankhead station's platform. This seems to be rather shortsighted. I have no idea why this station was built in such a substandard way, but they will need to rectify this shortcoming sooner or later.
Conclusions:
Overall, MARTA is a good system. However, there is room for improvement. My top three recommendations:
1. Drastically reduce the number and the frequency of in-train announcements. This costs nothing, but makes a huge difference for passengers.
2. Extend the night shuttle on the Red line to the Five Points station and thus reduce service frequency on the busiest portion of the system between Five Points and Lindbergh Center from "once in 20 minutes" to "once in 10 minutes". This will cost very little, as they will need to run only one more train and have one more operator in service during evening/night hours.
In addition, swap night service patterns on the Red and Gold lines. Ideally, the Red line should run all the way south to the airport, and the Gold line should terminate at Five Points (not at Lindbergh Center).
3. Improve the bus feeder network. A bus once an hour is a ridiculous frequency for a populated and growing city like Atlanta. Run them every 15 minutes or less and be surprised with a sudden surge of ridership. Houston did this just a couple of years ago, follow their suite. This is higher cost, but still much cheaper than building new lines or stations.
Atlanta streetcar
I really don't want to offend anyone here. But my softest, nicest expression about this rail system is this: What a pathetic joke! The streetcar is very slow. It runs in street traffic and gets stuck in traffic. There are no published timetables. Streetcars run empty. No fare enforcement. No fare integration with MARTA. Only one-way connection to MARTA. The streetcar was not running one day I was in Atlanta, but no announcements, fare machines are operational and still sell 2-hour and 1-day tickets, even though there will be no streetcars until the next day (yes, I wasted a dollar). I found only one positive: nice vehicles and nice seats with low-back support. Everything else is pretty much mediocre. The grade is C.
There are also two airport people movers in the Atlanta airport (which is the largest in the U.S.), one in the secure zone and one outside, but they are really no different from other similar airport systems, so I will save my breath here.
Overall, my conclusion is that Atlanta is worth a two or three day visit for a railfan.
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