So yesterday, Brody invited me up to the Dunwoody beer festival, and I decided that the best, and most responsible thing to do, would be to ride Marta up, and then catch a ride home with James later on in the evening. I was to meet Brody around 2pm, but being in the hurry I was, I forgot my ticket for the festival, so I had to go home and get it. Well, it only set me back a little bit, so I should have still been there around 2:30. No worries. Well, I got to Marta about 2, thinking it would take about 30 minutes MAX to ride up to Dunwoody. Well, I waited at 5 points for literally, over 40 minutes, while no less than 3 trains (15-20 minutes apart) for Doraville came through. Finally, I got on the last Doraville train, and changed trains at Lindbergh. It turns out, that this is the new way they do things; you get your transfer train to North Springs at Lindbergh, and not 5 points, as it has been in the past. WTF? Marta, you get a huge dose of FAIL, not only for having trains only come once every 20 minutes (seriously unacceptable), but for not indicating to riders the necessary information they need to actually get from A to B successfully.
I can definitely say that I will think long and hard before I get on Marta again. It is bad enough that our city has a sub-par AT BEST transit system, but to find out that even that is unreliable, and at best filled with fault and flaws galore, that it really makes one shake their head. Why can so many cities master the city transit system, but Atlanta just can’t seem to do anything right? Ugh… frustration is all I seem to get from Marta these days, and it is frustration that I can thankfully all but avoid entirely.
After I finally got my destination a full HOUR after I set off on my journey, I had a blast hanging out with Brody, Dave, and other assorted members of their kick ball team. It was a pretty fun day. I can’t say that I drank $30 worth of booze (the price of the ticket), but I did find a new potential favorite beer in Warsteiner’s Cola beer. Holy shit! That stuff is insanely good, and very refreshing. I never though I would like a cola flavored beer, but it is damn good. I am going to be consuming lots of it this summer, I can feel it.
Either way, it all turned out to be a fun day with friends and booze, but it began with a big dose of FAIL, ala Marta style. Boo Marta… yay booze and friends.
Dude, the Lindberg change has been in place for the last three years, where have you been?
It’s normally only in the evenings that make you do that. That really sucks… Taking a look at the website it looks it was an all-day occurence (change @ Lindbergh) yesterday… MARTA’s not the most user-friendly system outside of peak hours.
Greg, dude, I rode Marta for years, and they always gave you both options during normal hours. Seems according to Broderick, it was special thing for yesterday.
It sounds awful. I think every bigger city should have a good public transit system. I cannot imagine what cities like London, Paris and Madrid would look like without their public transit systems.
Glad you finally made it, though. It was fun. I’m going to figure out another way to get down there for EABF.
they don’t have more trains on sundays because people don’t fide them. seriously, with gas at almost $4 and the crude for it provided by some of the worst people on the planet, was the extra 40 minutes really that bad? i’m not calling you out, just asking you to think about the value to the city and the world that was gained from you not taking a car.
btw - i rode marta all over town on sunday, including a change at five points, twice. i saw multiple signs on the northbound platform indicating the need to ride the doraville train and heard the station manager announce it over the p.a. multiple times while i was standing on the platform.
by the way, the reason you had to do that is for ’single tracking’ which marta is doing in an attempt to upgrades their tracks to improve performance.
should they do the single tracking monday morning at 7:30 am?
James, first of all, I don’t buy into the “they run less trains because people don’t ride them”. If you truly were riding on Sunday, you probably noticed what I did; enough people to fill each train, with many people standing because the seats were all taken. I understand and echo you feelings about gas, but if I am taking the alternative, I just wish it was one worth taking; hence my comparison to virtually every other city transit in the country.
As far as your experience, and the fact that you saw signs indicating the need to ride a Doraville train to Lindbergh, and then change, I am glad that you got the information you needed, but I did not. When I changed from my east/west bound train, I got off to the center of the tracks, and simply went downstairs, like I usually do, to the northbound platform. You probably noticed the large LCD screens that project ad after ad, and that usually scroll important information on them (such as, when the next train can be expected); however, on Sunday, the only thing scrolling was “welcome to Marta”. I know, because I watched it for over 40 minutes. There were no other signs. Additionally, they did announce the need to take a Doraville train; AFTER 2 other trains had already passed, and ONLY when the third train was about to leave. Again, I find that unacceptable.
If Marta is doing “single tracking” to improve their lines, I think that at a BARE minimum, that they should let their riders know by posting notices in conspicuous places; one sign at the entrance to five points (if that was even there, I don’t know, as I didn’t exit the station, I only changed there) doesn’t cut it. I am all for them improving the system, even with inconveniences to the riders, but a heads up is the least that they could provide; unfortunately, they failed to do even that on Sunday.
“If you truly were riding on Sunday”
huh?
why would i make that up? if you must know i got on at mlk at around 11:00, rode to lenox, and then to chamblee. back to five points and then finally back to mlk.
the trains had a fair amount of people on them, about typical for a sunday, but nothing like what you would see on the tube or the metro in paris during the weekend., or even marta during rush hour.
of course they run less trains because there are less passengers. that is why it is called off peak.
the signs were all over the northbound platform. i saw at least two of them. maybe you just missed them?
also, they were announcing it all the time. i heard the station manager saying it over and over while i was waiting. perhaps you didn’t hear them.
your comparison to every other transit system? there are only like 6 that are as extensive than marta. granted, at least three maybe four of them are better than marta - boston, nyc, dc and maybe bart in san fran - but that is the result of extensive work demanded by riders. boston’s transit system was all but falling apart a decade ago, and when guiliani was elected in nyc the mta had a crime rate that would make zimbabwe look safe. septa in philly and cta in chicago are no fun at all.
have you ever ridden dart in dallas? what a disaster, you can’t even get to the airport without changing systems twice and taking a shuttle bus. houston doesn’t even have trains. try taking public transit in la. good luck.
marta isn’t great. it has problems and needs a lot of work. that being said, every day it moves tens of thousands of us around - to and from our jobs, sporting events, etc. is it more inconvenient sometimes, sure? but considering the costs individually and to our world that driving entails, it is an inconvenience i am willing to deal with.
eh - duane, i just realized how preach i sound. i once wrote a post very similar to this after a hawks game. funny how six months and thousands of marta miles logged has changed my perspective.
just think about it a little more before you swear it off forever, that’s all i ask.
oh and forgive my preachy-ness. there are alot of misconceptions about marta and those of us that love it can get defensive at times.
cheers.
James, no worries. I didn’t mean to insinuate that you didn’t actually ride on Sunday too.
I think that my experiences with Marta are one of those “ARGHGHGHGHG FUCK YOU MARTA!!!! *thrusts fists to sky*”, but then, I ride it again later down the road. I will never swear it off forever, but I just need to vent when they do crap like they did Sunday.
If I didn’t hear the person announce the need to ride a Doraville train, I can bet that others didn’t as well. In fact, there was a group of three people that waited just like I did, on the other side of the platform. They didn’t look as annoyed, but maybe it was because they had each other to talk to. Perhaps I noticed it more because I was riding by myself.
Who knows.
I know that Marta isn’t perfect, and there is a lot they could do to improve it, but that doesn’t mean that I am not glad that it is here. I wish it would grow and expand, and become even better. These sessions of venting only echo my desire for it to be what it currently isn’t; but that doesn’t underscore the fact that I am glad that we at least have SOMETHING, you know?