Why can't Atlanta/Georgia get public transportation right? (live in, bus)

[society619]

Coming from San Diego's MTS system and now using MARTA for the last five years I can honestly say that this is the biggest joke of a transit system I've ever seen in my life!! For most people who live in this city Marta is nowhere remotely close to where you live and most people have to drive 20-30 minutes just to get to the Marta station or bus stop near them unless you're in Fulton or DeKalb County. The Rail system is poorly maintained, the trains will break down fairly often because of their conditions which causes all other train around the line to be delayed.


We've seen other failures such as C-Tran going under and now Xpress possibly going under early next year. I understand that Marta or public transit in general doesn't get much if any funding from the state and I always hear people talking about working on a better system but little action is ever done. Plus you have the attitude of some people in this city that don't want public transportation because "they don't want people using Marta to steal from them" which is really an incredibly stupid stance to have. The situation is only getting worse, with constant money troubles Marta is having don't be surprised if Marta goes under in a few years or continues to higher your fares for crappy service. This system is really light years behind every other major city in this country and I don’t know if everybody here is willing to change that.

[RainyRainyDay]

Because it's a pretty strong red state. The majority of politicians and voters don't approve of public enterprises such as MARTA.

[neil0311]

Originally Posted by society619

This system is really light years behind every other major city in this country and I don’t know if everybody here is willing to change that.

OK...now I recognize that Atlanta doesn't have the kind of system that NY or Chicago has, but I have to call BULL-DOO-DOO on your comment.

How many other cities in the US have heavy rail? How many have a direct link from their busy international airport direct to the downtown core? How many have park and ride stations throughout the suburbs? I agree that MARTA is limited for people like me who don't need to go downtown and it doesn't serve the majority of the metro residents who live and work in the suburbs. Granted. It's still better than many cities that have absolutely nothing.

Let's be real here and be intellectually honest. There is no way in hell you can justify the statement that Atlanta is "light years behind every other major city in this country." That's not only hyperbole, but outright bull-doo-doo.

[atlantagreg30127]

This topic has been discussed more than once before, and it's just a complaint thread. Please look up all the previous topics and add to those before creating another one. Thank you.