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Posted inDavid Pendered

Transit website proposal addresses one component of King legacy

by David Pendered

A bipartisan group has formed to promote state legislation that urges metro Atlanta’s transit agencies to establish a single website that would make it easier for passengers to plan and pay for trips.

State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) sponsored Senate Resolution 735. Co-signers include Sen. Jason Carter (D-Decatur), Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta), Sen. Fran Millar (R-Dunwoody), and Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega). The Senate Transportation Committee could take it up as early as Wednesday.

The legislation is relevant as the nation pauses to honor the Martin Luther King, Jr. national holiday. By making it easier to plan and pay for a transit trip, the site may enable people to take a job a distance from their home. Jobs were the subject of a poverty initiative King launched shortly before his death.

Posted inDavid Pendered

MARTA recruiting bus drivers with “excellent customer service skills”

by David Pendered

MARTA is beginning the New Year with a job fair to hire full-time bus operators.

The jobs provide benefits and pay from $13.68 to $19.54 an hour. The jobs fair, for an unspecified number of drivers, is slated from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday at MARTA’s headquarters, located adjacent to the Lindbergh Station.

The hiring program is part of MARTA’s focus on restoring levels of customer service that were trimmed to meet the financial rigors of the Great Recession. MARTA GM Keith Parker has made it clear that MARTA must appeal to riders who have the choice of using the system or driving their own vehicle.
For this jobs fair, the attention to customer service is evident in the first sentence of a flyer:

“MARTA is currently recruiting for professional, customer focused full-time bus operators.”

Posted inDavid Pendered

MARTOC chair praises MARTA’s GM for trajectory of transit agency

by David Pendered

Keith Parker is ending his first year as MARTA’s general manager with glowing remarks from the chair of the state legislature’s committee that oversees MARTA.

“I really appreciate everything that is going on right now at MARTA and look forward to an excellent second year, as we have had an excellent first year under Mr. Parker,” said state Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven), who chairs the joint House-Senate committee known as MARTOC.

Jacobs delivered his remarks Friday, during MARTOC’s final meeting of the year. The meeting ended a full day for transit leaders, who hosted a “State of MARTA” breakfast at the agency’s headquarters.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Atlanta welcomes kempt vendors; MARTA to allow food concessions in 2015, starting with four stations

by David Pendered

A trip to downtown Atlanta may soon include the chance to buy snacks and souvenirs and even a meal from vendors along Atlanta’s sidewalks and in MARTA stations.

The Atlanta City Council approved a plan Monday that is to have vendors back on the streets before Christmas. MARTA could have sandwich shops and coffee kiosks in stations within two years, based on results of a study due by February.

One thing everyone in charge agrees is that the vending programs will look nothing like the “Third World flea market on steroids” that set up shop in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games, to cite a description coined by Dick Yarbrough, chief communications officer for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

Posted inDavid Pendered

MARTA to unveil new buses in festive event reminiscent of its glory days

by David Pendered

As part of its new effort to promote the positive, MARTA on Thursday will display one of its new CNG buses at the Five Points Station.

MARTA, not wanting to spoil the surprise, is not releasing photos of the new buses until after the event, which is slated from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The buses feature an updated logo and eye-catching elements, according to a MARTA statement.

The festivity of displaying the bus harkens to an era when the region celebrated the opening of transit stations and the arrival of new vehicles. Top MARTA officials are slated to convene an official welcoming ceremony from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Posted inDavid Pendered, Latest News

A new MARTA: Good news highlighted by GM Keith Parker

by David Pendered

MARTA GM Keith Parker on Friday painted a portrait of MARTA that’s dramatically improved from the doom-and-gloom image sketched in last year’s management audit by KPMG.

Parker presented MARTA as a service provider that’s determined to balance its budget by raising money through land leases and improving customer service so more people want to use the system. One dramatic indicator of the new approach: MARTA is hiring bus drivers, as opposed to slashing payroll expenses.

As for media reports about expanding service in the Ga. 400 corridor, Parker said the route will go into the pot for consideration with two other routes that have long been considered: I-20 east and the Clifton corridor. “For whatever reason, 400 caught the attention of the media; but as I stressed to them, 400 is not a favorite,” Parker said during a presentation to Georgia Stand-Up.

Posted inDavid Pendered

First MARTA budget proposed by “new” GM provides for passengers, employees, capital investments

by David Pendered

The first annual budget to be presented by MARTA’s (somewhat) new GM/CEO provides something for both employees and passengers. The board is expected to approve the proposed budget Monday.

Keith Parker started at MARTA in December and made it clear during several meet-and-greet events that he intends to focus on both riders and employees. His goal is to improve the perception and reality of metro Atlanta’s largest transit system.

For passengers, MARTA’s budget proposal provides for a 12-month deferral of a planned fare increase, heightens sense-of-safety measures, and provides for the reopening of bathrooms in stations. For employees, there’s to be a no-cost package including a relaxed dress code and telecommute program, plus pay incentives. For system well-being, there’s $155.5 million in capital investments.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Public transit outlook remains case of: “Better the devil you know”

by David Pendered

The landscape of public transit has become clearer in metro Atlanta and elsewhere in Georgia, at least for the next year – not much will change.

The state Senate essentially gave MARTA’s new GM, Keith Parker, a year to get settled into the job and devise plans to curb costs and raise revenues. The Senate stalled expansive legislation, which the House had approved, to privatize segments of MARTA and otherwise retool its board and operations.

Gov. Nathan Deal prevailed in his effort for the state to fund Xpress, the regional bus service overseen by GRTA. Finally, the planning process continues to advance for helping people take public transit to their medical appointments, and other critical destinations, in metro Atlanta and throughout Georgia.

Posted inDavid Pendered

Legislature OKs $8.1 million for Xpress buses, stalls MARTA reorganization plan until next year

by David Pendered

Two transit measures that are important to metro Atlanta commuters were resolved when the state Legislature ended its 2013 session late Thursday.

The Xpress bus service received $8.1 million in funding, which will enable the commuter bus program operated by GRTA to continue its service through the fiscal year that begins July 1. An additional $567,000 will keep buses running through June 30.

A proposal to reorganize MARTA and privatize some of its operations stalled in the Senate and is eligible for reconsideration in the Legislature’s 2014 session.

Posted inDavid Pendered

MARTA, developers may start projects at three stations by early fall

by David Pendered

Proposed developments at three MARTA stations are so hot that they could start in a matter of months, according to MARTA records.

The proposals involve the stations of Avondale, Chamblee and King Memorial. Each proposal has “advanced to the point of the board’s decision/action and could be put into action this summer or early fall,” records show.

MARTA can’t wait for a consultant to be hired in May to handle the proposals. Instead, MARTA seeks to hire a consultant to work on these projects over the next 60 to 90 days. Bids for the consulting position close March 25.

Posted inDavid Pendered

A relation between stadium deal and stalled MARTA bill? Who’s to say

by David Pendered

There may be no relation whatsoever, but the plan to build a new Falcons stadium is moving forward and the proposed legislation to restructure MARTA and privatize some of its operations appears to be fading for the 2013 session.

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s administration delivered a final deal within two months after receiving a troubled proposal from Gov. Nathan Deal. Reed’s team provided the $200 million in construction financing, plus somewhere around $100 million in public/private funds to fix up the area around the future stadium.

Rep. Mike Jacobs (R-Brookhaven) indicated Tuesday that he’s done about all he can to sweeten his team’s proposal to reorganize MARTA. Jacobs has offered to eliminate the privatization provision in House Bill 264 and to resolve in MARTA’s favor all but one concern MARTA has raised. Still, the bill is stalled in the Senate.

Posted inDavid Pendered

New report challenges MARTA’s management study that’s fueling Legislature’s call for change

by David Pendered

A new report commissioned by a national transit union cites what it contends are deep flaws in MARTA’s own management study, which is fueling the General Assembly’s effort to reorganize MARTA and promote the privatization of some jobs.

The new report is part of the groundswell of opposition the national union and its advocates are attempting to mount against looming changes in the management and oversight of metro Atlanta’s largest transit system.

In the past, the presence of the national union appeared to be barely evident in MARTA’s affairs. This moment is different, as evidenced by strong language in the report by a professor at Columbia University who specializes in privatization:

Posted inDavid Pendered

Organized opposition emerges to MARTA’s proposed restructuring, privatization of some jobs

by David Pendered

Opponents of the expansive legislative proposal to remake MARTA’s governance structure and privatize jobs took to the streets Thursday and say they collected about a thousand signatures supporting their view.

The protest movement now consists of three entities: MARTA’s union; the national union office in Washington, D.C.; and Georgians for Better Transit.

The transit group is a state affiliate of Americans for Transit, of which former MARTA GM Beverly Scott serves as a director. The national group’s website says it is a grassroots group of transit riders and advocates who seek to secure transit funding.

Posted inTom Baxter

Chattanooga: Eating our lunch in liveability

Avatar photo by Tom Baxter

When Atlantans look around for other cities to compare theirs with, they think major league all the way. They measure their growth against Houston and Dallas. They travel to Denver and Seattle to find civic inspiration and worry that Charlotte and Nashville are gaining on them.

But as we contemplate the hotter, wetter future we discussed last week, we might be better off taking a look at Chattanooga.

Yes, Chattanooga. Seldom do we think of our neighbor across the Tennessee line as much of a competitor. When they built an aquarium, we just built a bigger one. But for nearly three decades, since a group of civic leaders got together in 1984 and committed themselves to doing something about Chattanooga’s image as the dirtiest city in America, and in the view of some the dullest, they have been eating our lunch on the playing field of liveability.

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