Government, community and transit leaders agree — the departure of MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood puts the transit agency at an inflection point.
The following questions need to be answered:
Will local, regional and state leaders coalesce around a “world-class” vision for transit in Georgia’s capital city?
Will those community leaders be able to convince a strong, visionary executive to become MARTA’s next leader, given the multiple complicated issues currently facing the transit agency?
Both Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Atlanta City Council President Doug Shipman agreed that the change in leadership gives the region an opportunity to address MARTA’s operational issues while also sparking a grand vision of how we can improve transit in the region.
“As we look ahead, my administration remains committed to building a world-class transit system for Atlanta and the entire region,” Dickens said in a statement. “A safe, reliable and connected MARTA is essential to our goals for equity, economic mobility and sustainability, and to my vision of a city built for the future with opportunity for all.”
The mayor went on to say: “This is a pivotal opportunity to accelerate the system improvements and expansions our residents have long called for. We will also continue deepening collaboration with fellow municipal leaders across the region to ensure that MARTA keeps pace with our growth. Together, we can and will deliver an innovative transit system that moves Atlanta forward.”
Shipman said the leadership change provides an “opportunity for a needed hard reset in operations and project delivery.”
In an interview, Shipman said MARTA has problems with reliability and dependability. Ridership is down, and MARTA has not bounced back like other major transit systems since the COVID pandemic.
“Are we collectively putting pressure on MARTA to get the right leader and to deliver on that change?” Shipman asked. “The window is now open to get a leader who can deliver on that change and who can build a team that can execute the vision.”
Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, expressed a similar sentiment.
“Atlanta deserves a world-class transit system that is clean, reliable, and attractive,” Kirkpatrick said in a statement. “Riders should feel safe and confident in a system built to serve them well. MARTA has a responsibility to deliver a high-quality transit experience, and that starts with strong and visionary leadership.”
Several themes emerged in multiple conversations with community and transit, including several who once worked for MARTA — themes that were consistent with a comprehensive article in the Atlanta Journal–Constitution.
MARTA needs an operational leader who can make the trains — and buses — run on time, literally and figuratively.
And MARTA also needs a leader who can inspire the region to envision and implement a robust transit system.
Let me be clear. MARTA’s problems go far beyond the CEO. Internal and external issues will need to be addressed to get the agency back on track (pun intended).
Internally, MARTA’s bench has been depleted, and the agency is relying on expensive consultants to plan and run the system. MARTA will need to attract expertise in-house to implement transit improvements, economic development, and operational excellence.
In recent years, there’s been an incestuous relationship between MARTA executives and consultants — including a revolving door between the two — a situation that raises ethical questions.
Most recently, the MARTA board last November voted to make an “exception” to the agency’s ethics code to allow former chief of staff Melissa Mullinax to take a position with the engineering consulting firm HNTB.
Presumably, MARTA’s ethical rules prohibit companies with active contracts from hiring former MARTA employees for six months after they leave the agency. But the MARTA board has approved six exceptions to that ethics rule in the last several years, a clear indication that the ethics policy is not being enforced.
Concern also exists when it comes to MARTA’s ability to operate during major events, the Peachtree Road Race, Shakira and Beyonce concerts and Pride festivities, to name a few. This is troublesome when the city and MARTA are preparing for Atlanta to host the World Cup in 2026.
MARTA is reportedly trying to revamp its fare collection system in September, but several people expressed concern that the transit agency isn’t ready. Meanwhile, MARTA has argued that its ridership is down because of broken fare gates and riders evading paying to ride.
MARTA’s capital projects, most to be paid partly by the city’s More MARTA sales tax, are struggling. The Summerhill BRT (bus rapid transit) project is plagued with delays and cost overruns. The Campbellton Road BRT is also not moving expeditiously. And then there’s the controversial redo of the Five Points MARTA Station, a $230 million project.
Also, several transit experts are questioning the city’s and MARTA’s commitment to building out an attainable rail network when Mayor Dickens paused the implementation of a nearly shovel-ready streetcar on the Beltline’s Eastside Trail.
Little traction is underway on two of the mayor’s pet projects — four infill MARTA stations and building Beltline rail on the southside. Both of those ideas have raised eyebrows among national transit leaders in terms of feasibility, ridership and cost.
MARTA also does not have the internal expertise to implement Transit Oriented Development around its stations, one of the best ways to build ridership and spur economic growth.
The lack of state funding and investment in MARTA has been a problem since the agency was formed in 1971. If the region seriously wants to improve MARTA, it needs to convince the governor and the Georgia Department of Transportation to become full partners. Instead, the state has relied on its alphabet soup of agencies (DOT, GRTA, SRTA and the ATL) to invest in roads, highways and bus lanes.
The vision to extend MARTA rail to Alpharetta along Georgia 400 was thwarted when GDOT and North Fulton mayors said they preferred cars and buses, encroaching on the right-of-way that was supposed to have been used by MARTA trains. Now the state is spending $4.6 billion on a massive project that will have no rail.
In a candid interview on June 27, before it was known that Greenwood had stepped back from his job, Dickens shared a long list of complaints about MARTA. Because of service disruptions caused by a shortage of bus and train operators, people are not choosing MARTA as their preferred mode of travel.
“That’s a problem,” Dickens said after the June meeting of the Atlanta Committee for Progress. “The future of a growing city needs a world-class transit system that keeps up with the city’s growth. So, we are making demands about that.”
When asked whether rail needs to be part of the region’s transit future, the mayor said: “Absolutely. Yeah, we’ve got to build it out.”
As chairman of the Atlanta Regional Commission, Dickens is positioned politically to bring the regional, state, civic and business leaders together to develop consensus on a forward-looking transit plan. Only then will MARTA and the Atlanta region be able to attract the kind of transit leader we need.
Part of the problem with this entire town, is it keeps referring to itself as world class. It’s delusional. That term has no meaning, and Atlanta is in no way in a league with New York or London or Dubai.
The smoke show is over and Dallas and even Savannah are growing faster. Time to face reality and actually build a working town in reality. Look at cleaning up Lindbergh as a start.
Have you moved out already? It’d be a shame for you to be somewhere you clearly hate. I’m sure New York, London, Dallas, Dubai and Savannah are awaiting you with open arms.
Be careful what you wish for, the numbers coming out of Fulton and Dekalb and Cobb will no longer be pretty. The bluster and delusion of this town being a great city are gone. It was lucky to have gotten the Olympics and it cannot manage itself today which is why it looks like it does and folks are in fact leaving.
The term “World Class” is often bandied about when it comes to Atlanta’s place in the world: with sports Atlanta does have “world class” venues, it does not have a “world class” public transit system. I ride MARTA weekly (Blue Line and Red/Gold lines) and I travel to cities that have extensive rail and bus networks-Paris, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Glasgow, Chicago, New York. Those cities have extensive light and heavy rail systems, and reliable bus systems, and they all have government support. Atlanta does not. All those systems have high-speed rail transit that is North/South and East/West, and with good bus connectivity. That defines “world class”. Atlanta desperately needs the support of the State of Georgia, and federal support (divert GDOT money for roads to public transit-a radical idea for the South, but needed). Without such support and political will a “world class” transit system is, as the writer above says, “delusional”.
Absolutely. What we lack is leadership. And it starts at the top in the governors office. Where is the annual budget with moneys set aside for increasing transportation infrastructure that the state DOT is failing to provide for rail and transit? While the state legislature in a sense recognized a need by establishing the ATL board. It failed to follow through with the necessary funding to start building out a transit system. As it stands MARTA rail is not much more than what was originally envisioned 50 years ago. Very little expansion has been done to the original plan except building the north line towards Roswell and Alpharetta.
The northeast line which was intended to extend into Gwinnett waits. Yes, Gwinnett has three times recently failed to get a referendum passed but it is clear a rail extension is needed and only as light rail. This will require state intervention and funding for among other things to satisfy the core MARTA counties that have had Gwinnett residents using the system without paying in their fair share. That would have been addressed and can be now with serious state funding as every other major transit system in other states have state funding support.
For that matter Cobb was also supposed to get a rail line split off the north line near armor yards. Their long time reluctance ended that and I would not be surprised that that spur was then used for the MARTA maintence facility there. Rail should be extended into Cobb. A rail oner across the top end has been discussed for decades but put on the back burner. With the Braves stadium placed in Cobb it makes even more sense to build a rail line across the top end tying together the MARTA rail lines in place or to be added to Cobb. The costs are high even for lower cost light rail but the top end perimeter has reached the point where it makes no financial sense to do any more road widenings. After looking at the billions it costs to redo the top end the billions to build rail look a lot more feasible. A recent study for building light rail from Vinings to Northlake was $4B. Light rail into Gwinnett was about $3B and probably about that into Cobb. Some of the state revenue surplus (rainy day fund) could be used to start the projects and leverage federal funds. Will the next governor take the lead on this as our current governor has failed to do this?
So long as “city” leaders scream world-class but behave as city-class, we will have this problem.
MARTA should have been directed as regional infrastructure long ago, so the metro counties and State would buy-in.
The Vision needs to build equity in the infrastructure, not the payroll.
As important as it will be to find the right CEO of MARTA, it is really far more urgent for existing government and business leaders (at every level) to recommit to the long standing vision for transit in the region. Land use decisions, non-transit infrastructure decisions, parking policy decisions – all are beyond the purview of a new CEO. But they are clearly in the hands of leaders we have right now. The public should demand performance not lip service – right now.
Let’s hope someone steps up to take leadership.
Well, MARTA was irresponsible not demanding a green card from this guy at least 20 years ago. Now they have to deal with it. 🤷🏾♀️
He had a green card but it had an expiration date. The current federal government has failed to renew it. According to the AJC it was requested six months ago. One has to wonder if this is some of the ramifications of the mess being made in Washington. That being said maybe it is time for new leadership at MARTA. It clearly is time for new regional and even state leadership to lead a vision for the future.
Some of us who have been around here a few decades, had hopes this transit system would be built out regionally. Curiously, the Summerhill BRT will go strangely close to 5 Points without touching it–what kind of planning is that? We almost had commuter rail once upon a time. Dangerously close. Got killed. Even South Florida has moved ahead with Tri-Rail, many years ago. Poor Clayton County, still waiting. And this boondoggle of beating the 5 Points structure to the ground (built to last 300 years) and rebuild it instead of renovating it (renewing finishes and hardscapes). Why? Rail train operators mumbling on loudspeakers. East Beltline purposely engineered for rail, but not moving forward. This list could go on and on. Maybe someone here will post an extensive list. Maybe Saporta Report should make an extensive list of all the misses, wrong turns, and forgotten plans?
Atlanta IS a world class city but also has a lot of small minded and conservative people that not only live around the Metro and the state of Georgia but also within Atlanta’s suburbs. I say this a supporter of MARTA but the agency will more than likely never expand. I say this also as a former resident of Atlanta, Chamblee, Sandy Springs (where I had access to MARTA) and now a resident in Buford (due to an unexpected life change) and I can tell you I HATE not having access to transit. My commute to Alpharetta (for work) luckily is not horrific on the main surface streets but living out here I can understand why residents that aren’t in the main core of Atlanta wouldn’t support transit even though it’s needed. It’s because they live, work, and play in their own communities, many of them never actually go to Atlanta but reap the benefits of Atlanta (not understanding that they have great amenities due to Atlanta being the economic engine of the state as well as the South). So when I see an empty Ride Gwinnett route 50 bus every hour or so and never see anyone on or even waiting for the bus I would ask too (playing devil’s advocate) “Why would I support Atlanta transit when 1) I never go to Atlanta and 2) nobody rides the service that is already out here?” This area is very territorial and people are “proud” to be from their towns. I saw this A LOT in Sandy Springs though it is literally connected to Buckhead on the southern end of Roswell Road. That mindset of the region will prevent MARTA from truly being what it can and should be. Also, when you have no dedicated state funding and (though I like the Mayor) leadership cancelling important expansion projects like the streetcar or even other light rail projects, promises of more stations with no clearly defined timeline, no talks of expanding heavy rail but instead promising MORE buses, like the Ga400 BRT plan, and a community even within the core of NIMBY’ers MARTA will never be the system that is needed. Now you are also looking at implementing a new bus network redesign that while there are more “rapid” bus routes at 18 (up from 5) that run at least 15 minutes, MARTA will be cutting about 30 routes to do that and creating micro-transit zones. The focus for MARTA unfortunately should be Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, and Atlanta. The only thing that should be expanding is the current heavy rail system and adding more frequent service on what is already there because truth be told the network can be redesigned for more direct routes but the coverage is actually really good; the buses just run too slow. Five 15 bus routes on it’s current 110 routes is just “Ludacris” (lol, I know it’s ludicrous).
While I’m far from an expert you can read my study on expanding MARTA in my thesis entitled Demographic changes and the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority expansion: A Clayton County, Georgia study.
They’ll default on their bonds. The state won’t bail them out. MARTA is toast. Private contractors, like the very efficient orange buses on Buford Highway, can and will and should take over that role.
Huge turning point for MARTA—finding a visionary operator who can rebuild trust, fix reliability, and rally real regional investment has never mattered more.