#TransitEquityDay

State of MARTA 2022

This week was the State of MARTA 2022. The virtual event celebrates MARTA’s essential workers, announces new federal funding and EV charging stations, and previews new EV bus routes in the year ahead.

MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker also unveiled the long-awaited new rolling stock, which are set to replace the 40-year old rail cars and launch MARTA into the 21st century at last. The Stadler deal, inked in 2018, will run $646 million and should see the first trains in 2023.

Reasons for replacing the aging rolling stock were delay times and expensive repairs. The modern, gangway-style Stadler rail cars are wrapped in a minimalist MARTA-brand ribbon chosen by riders and feature ADA spaces, digital signage, charging outlets, and luggage racks. Things a modern transit system has! The exterior lighting can change color to show the line the rider is taking.

You can watch the full State of MARTA here:

The hardware is ready. It’s time to build Terminal Station to give Atlanta #MoreMARTA

terminal-station-at-night

We learned that Jeffrey Parker passed away on Friday evening. Our hearts and our prayers go out to his family and friends.

Week 6

It looks like CIM Group got the land grab of the century, and all it cost them was 33M. On Thursday Oct 14, CIM Group president Brian McGowan presented Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms with a giant novelty check for 33.5M under the guise of “community benefits.”

Brian McGowan, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Richard Ressler

In return, Atlanta taxpayers will give away nearly 2 BILLION in incentives to construct the glitzy Centennial Yards, a plan which still does not include a terminal station for MARTA, for greater Georgia, and for the Southeast

For some context, here’s a pie chart of the deal your mayor and council just made

Legislation will promise Gulch money for affordable housing initiatives

Once again, here is the Gulch redevelopment you deserve, priced originally at 1B:

You can visit our Maps page to see your local station

Terminal Station 1905

Week 3

Where’s the wye?

In an aerial plan released in July, Centennial Yards insists the project is “designed to blend with adjacent communities in style and scale,” which seems like a glib way of saying they’ve heard your concerns, but they’re still not building a terminal station

Centennial Yards releases updated master plan (20 July 2021)

Where’s the wye?

Save The Gulch!

Here’s the 2013 video produced by FX Collaborative of the Gulch development you deserve

FXFOWLE and Cooper Carry-designed $1B Atlanta Intermodal Project Wins Federal Acceleration

Week 1

This weekend, I had a chance to try out a DJI Spark drone in the Gulch where Terminal Station once stood. We launched from the CNN parking deck and tried to show each historic railroad corridor to underscore the site’s importance

Still in traffic stinging from that Falcons loss? Check out the video and imagine a new kind of city where, after the game, you can take MARTA home in every direction

Gulch 360 degree view

East and West corridors are already in use as MARTA’s Green and Blue lines

MARTA’s Red and Gold lines are not shown in this video, these trains leave from Five Points which is visible in the East corridor

The North and South corridors shown in this video are those not yet operated by MARTA, but can and must be included in any development plans for the Gulch

Could MARTA see an Orange or Purple line in its future?

Music – Diotic