Tag: MARTA
Posted inColumns, David Pendered, Main Slider
Transit funding proposals offer hope, warrant scrutiny
Transit may be entering a golden era of funding in Georgia and across the nation.
The Republican-sponsored transportation proposal in Georgia would provide transit with its first-ever significant state support. President Obama’s proposed budget, released Monday, would provide $478 billion over six years for transportation infrastructure, including transit.
Posted inColumns, David Pendered, Main Slider
Ca. high speed rail a display of persistence worth noting in Georgia
This month’s groundbreaking ceremony on the nation’s first high speed rail system, in California, provides a lesson in patience and persistence.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA’s labor contract targets absenteeism, as suggested by KPMG
MARTA’s latest contract negotiation with its labor union could help MARTA curb personnel costs by reducing absenteeism and the overtime costs it creates.
Absent workers represent one of the main categories where MARTA could cut costs, according to the management audit conducted in 2012 by the consulting firm KPMG. MARTA covers for absent workers by approving overtime pay for their replacements.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA sets meetings to present proposed route to Avondale Station
MARTA has scheduled two meetings in early December to enable the public to learn about, and comment on, plans to advance the proposed light rail line that’s to stretch from the Lindbergh Station, through the Clifton Road corridor, to the Avondale Station.
The proposed light rail line that would serve the Emory University area has been discussed for nearly 20 years.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA signs deals with Clayton County, defers vote on paratransit
A sense of the possible evidently floated over MARTA’s board of directors meeting Thursday.
Significantly, the board voted to defer a vote on privatizing the paratransit system – a vote that will enable MARTA’s staff to consider a cost-cutting proposal from the transit union.
The board also cast a vote that, at this point, was largely symbolic: To enter into a number of agreements to provide transit service in Clayton County that area related to the vote by Clayton County voters to approve a sales tax to join the transit system.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA’s proposed Brookhaven Station development offers challenges, report says
MARTA wants to engage a developer to build a live-work-play community in the 2-year-old city of Brookhaven, where a proposed 30-year plan appears to embrace dense urban development.
MARTA is seeking developers for its Brookhaven Station. MARTA intends to develop homes, offices and shops on almost half the station’s sparsely used lot, and replace those parking spaces in structured parking.
The project may not be easy, according to a MARTA report that states: “The positive involvement of [Brookhaven and DeKalb County] could be a challenge to bring about. It will take careful negotiation and cooperation, of which ARC [Atlanta Regional Commission] could help facilitate. The largest hurdle, however, could be the participation of private money lenders.”
Posted inDavid Pendered
Clayton County’s vote on MARTA comes as county’s growth rate slows
As Clayton County prepares to vote this autumn on joining MARTA, a recent report from the Atlanta Regional Commission shines new light on the number of potential riders who reside in Clayton County.
The ARC’s unofficial population estimates show the county added 1,000 residents from 2013 to 2014. That was the smallest increase among the 10 counties tracked by the ARC report.
Clayton’s population shifts will be among the factoids that will bear watching as the campaign for the 1 percent sales tax gears up after Labor Day. Clayton voters rejected a proposed regional 1 percent transportation sales tax that was on the ballot in July 2012.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA to open bids today for land in Midtown, Stone Mountain Village
MARTA officials today are slated to open bids for land MARTA intends to sell near the Arts Center Station in Midtown, and an additional property in Stone Mountain.
The minimum prices set by MARTA indicate that a sliver of land in Midtown is significantly more valuable than a parcel in Stone Mountain.
The Midtown site is barely more than a tenth the size of the one in Stone Mountain. The minimum price for this tract is set at about 75 percent of the Stone Mountain parcel, according to bid documents.
Posted inDavid Pendered
New regional transit trip-planner website growing slowly, as planned
A new transit website serving metro Atlanta is an example of local agencies responding to an idea many view as sensible, and which results from legislation that wasn’t enacted by the General Assembly.
In the first two weeks after its very soft launch, on July 1, ATLtransit.org has attracted slightly more than 1,000 views.
The website intends to help transit riders plan and pay for trips that involve riding one or more of the region’s transit systems. Four transit systems and ARC decided to build the site even though the Legislature did not vote for the concept brought forward by Sen. Brandon (R-Alpharetta).
Posted inDavid Pendered
Lawmakers support Clayton/MARTA deal, raise questions of equity
State lawmakers who oversee MARTA expressed a few reservations Tuesday as they generally applauded the potential of MARTA extending its service into Clayton County.
“This is a major step forward for transit in the region,” said state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven), who chairs MARTOC, the Legislature’s MARTA oversight committee. “Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come in terms of transit in metro Atlanta.”
Posted inDavid Pendered
Norfolk Southern in sound position if talks begin over rail transit in its freight corridor in Clayton County
Norfolk Southern appears to be in a solid negotiating position as advocates of Clayton County’s potential transit system prepare to ask the company to allow MARTA to operate passenger trains on Norfolk Southern’s freight tracks.
A MARTA study shows that $185 million could be saved if Norfolk Southern allows use of its freight line for passenger rail service. Norfolk Southern has sent a letter to MARTA that raised a red flag over the notion that passenger service could begin in seven years at the price contemplated in the MARTA study.
The issue will come to a head if Clayton County voters approve in November a 1 percent transit tax. Clayton’s Board of Commissioners voted Saturday to place the referendum on the ballot.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA’s financial plan for serving Clayton County activated by Saturday vote to set proposed tax at 1 percent
The finances of the planned expansion of MARTA service in Clayton County gained clarity after Clayton’s Board of Commissioners voted Saturday to put a proposed 1 percent transit tax on the November ballot.
That’s because the 1 percent tax rate activates a feasibility study by MARTA, which envisioned only the 1 percent tax rate and not the 0.5 percent rate the board approved this week. The cost of rail expansion remains a significant variable in MARTA’s plan.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Wall Street affirms MARTA, warns of system’s continuing fiscal dangers
A Wall Street credit rating agency has raised MARTA’s rating in advance of the system’s plan to sell $96 million in bonds on June 26.
The rating action states MARTA’s reliance on sales tax revenues as both an asset and a liability. Moody’s Investors Service cited as an asset MARTA’s gross pledge of its 1 percent sales tax, and as a liability the historic volatility of sales tax revenues – revenues that recent Georgia laws have reduced.
While any upgrade in credit is positive, Moody’s warned investors of the danger that MARTA could again raid its savings account to keep the system afloat – as was the case during the depth of the great recession.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA gingerly tests alcohol ads to raise money for transit operations
Ads for alcohol could become commonplace on MARTA buses, trains, stations and shelters as early as January.
MARTA is in the process of hiring an advertising firm and has asked proponents to estimate the amount of money MARTA could make from alcohol ads. The bids are due June 10.
The decision to allow alcohol ads is one of MARTA’s latest efforts to raise money to operate the system. The decision also leads MARTA into territory that it traditionally has avoided, and entered just this year by allowing ad vendor CBS Outdoor to sell alcohol ads on MARTA property.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Leaders: Transportation plans show united leadership, absence of politics
The spirit of regional leadership that emerged during the planning for the 2012 transportation sales tax referendum remains intact and is evident in the region’s new short- and long-term transportation plans, according to transportation officials.
“This is the first post-referendum Transportation Improvement Program [and] we did this very well,” said Jannine Miller, GRTA’s former executive director and newest board member.
“It was very political a long time ago,” said GRTA board member J.T. Williams. “The county chair got to say, ‘These are my two projects,’ and it didn’t matter what the projects were. That is a thing of the past. We have to get the best bang for the buck.”
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA’s mystery rider program, up for renewal, grew from federal ADA lawsuit filed by disabled riders
When MARTA on Wednesday begins its latest effort to improve customer service, it will be renewing a program that grew out of a federal court order issued in 2002 to protect disabled riders.
MARTA is soliciting proposals for a mystery rider program. A central issue is MARTA’s compliance with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The program goes by the sort of fun-sounding name of, “MARTA’s Mystery Customer Program.” The name harkens to the mystery customers who check on retail clerks to advise management on how well the clerks treat customers.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Free app provides riders with more information on transit arrival times
A free app from researchers at Georgia Tech is the latest step toward providing transit passengers with the integrated information they need to know about the region’s public transit systems.
The app now provides arrival time for MARTA trains. It previously had provided arrival times for MARTA buses and Georgia Tech’s shuttles. Over time, developers plan to add arrival data for other transit systems in the Atlanta area.
Posted inDavid Pendered
Transportation update: GRTA’s acting director, MARTA reorg on hold, Atlanta’s transportation planning
Some degree of clarity is emerging in metro Atlanta’s cauldron of transportation planners, managers, and planning.
GRTA Executive Director Jannine Miller visited the Capitol Thursday to say her goodbyes to lawmakers and introduce them to Kirk Fjelstul, her deputy director who was named by GRTA’s board as acting director. Down Mitchell Street from the Capitol, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed remains without a transportation planning director as the city tries to figure out how to realign Martin Luther King Jr. Drive around the future Falcons stadium and implement its bike share program.
Posted inDavid Pendered
MARTA expansion along I-20 in eastern DeKalb County a goal of proposed East Metro CID
Civic leaders in south DeKalb County are trying – again – to improve the area, and this time their goals include the extension of MARTA bus and rail service along the I-20 corridor east to Mall at Stonecrest.
One caveat that may distinguish this organizational effort from its two predecessor’s is this plain call to extend MARTA service. The I-20/east route is among those MARTA GM Keith Parker says are contenders – once construction money is available.
Advocates say the CID would enable commercial property owners to raise money that could help provide the local match needed to draw down state and federal dollars. The CID funds also could target public safety, appearance, and roadway/sidewalk improvements.
