CQ311 272

Location: Five Points Station, Atlanta, GA
Operator of Vehicle: MARTA
Date of Photo: August 12, 2000

This Photo of the Month selection honors the Atlanta Braves, who just won the 2021 World Series.  Back when I took this photo on my first trip to Atlanta in 2000, the Braves were not even five years removed from their first championship in Atlanta, they played at Turner Field, and the CQ311 rolling stock seen here would not begin to undergo rehabilitation for another six years.  While Turner Field wasn’t particularly close to a MARTA station, a short shuttle bus ride connected the stadium to the West End station, about two miles away.  Starting with the 2017 season, the Braves have played their home games at what is currently called Truist Park, which has practically no public transit access.  Two circulators serving the Cumberland area around the stadium operate every 30 minutes on weekdays and every 60 minutes on Saturdays.  A CobbLinc route from the Arts Center MARTA station stops about a 7 to 10 minute walk from the stadium, but does not operate on Sundays.  MARTA route 12 connects the Midtown Station to Cumberland Mall, but then one must transfer to the aforementioned Cumberland area circulator, which doesn’t operate on Sundays.  For all intents and purposes, the best way to get to the stadium is by car, which is why the Braves cited the lack sufficient parking at and the long drive for many fans to Turner Field as reasons they needed to move out to the suburbs.  

While you can’t easily take transit to see the Braves defend their title next season, fortunately, many other MLB stadiums are easily accessible by transit.  Truist Park has a “Transit Score” of 43, ahead of only the Tampa Bay Rays (41), Milwaukee Brewers (40), Kansas City Royals (32) and the Texas Rangers (0 due to playing in a city with no fixed route public transit at all).  

For more photos of MARTA Rolling Stock, please click here.

CQ310 134

Location: Peachtree Center Station, Atlanta, GA
Operator of Vehicle: MARTA
Date of Photo: October 8, 2015

Tomorrow evening, Atlanta will be at the center of most people’s attention in the United States (and around the world as well) when Super Bowl LII kicks off at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  Therefore, it seemed appropriate to draw attention to Atlanta’s transit system by sharing a MARTA photo for the photo of the month.

Although Atlanta’s heavy rail system is quite small considering the size of the metro Atlanta area and the amount of traffic congestion in and around the city, MARTA has proven itself to be quite capable when Atlanta has played host to large events.  This is the third Super Bowl being played in Atlanta, and MARTA was critical in transporting spectators during the 1996 Summer Olympics.  For the Olympic games, MARTA even oversaw an “add on system” of 1,400 buses loaned from other transit agencies to help ferry people to Olympic events.  MARTA was even responsible for paying to fuel these extra buses!  For this Super Bowl, MARTA is running continuous, 24-hour service from 4:00 AM on February 1st through 2:00 AM on February 5th, a total of 94 consecutive hours of service (the system usually shuts down overnight).

So whether you are rooting for Los Angeles or New England, don’t forget to root for the host city and its own transit system!  After all, the 70,000 plus people lucky enough to score a ticket to the game wouldn’t be able to get there otherwise!

For more photos of MARTA, please click here.

Société Franco-Belge CQ310 134

Location: Peachtree Center, Atlanta, Georgia
Operator of Vehicle: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA)
Date of Photo: October 8, 2015

As a result of Thursday night’s interstate highway collapse, MARTA is likely going to be getting a great deal of attention as the Atlanta area looks to cope for quite awhile without one of its main highways.  Fortunately, MARTA should be up to the task.  Its original rolling stock, the CQ310 cars, were originally built between 1979 and 1982 by the now defunct Société Franco-Belge company.  They were rehabilitated between 2006 and 2009 by Alstom, a process that brought them up to date with a series of modern amenities but also made them operationally compatible with the newer Breda CQ312 cars.  MARTA’s rolling stock reminds me a lot of its “cousins” in San Francisco and Washington.  These three systems were constructed at about the same time and share a number of design features.  Although MARTA is not nearly as large nor as well utilized as BART and the DC Metrorail, one can hope that it can prove its worth in the emergency situation that Atlanta is currently faced with.  

For more photos of MARTA rolling stock, please click here.