How is MARTA? (College Park, Union City: college, restaurant, prices)

[rlrl]

your user name. i was browsing a website about the MARTA stations and i notice that the first station opened was Five Points (or was it Lindburgh?) in 1979. the n Springs station was opened on 12/16/00 it said. Many others seemed to open in the early 80's

What's odd is that the ride from Airport to N Springs is 24.1 miles and takes 47 minutes, according to the site.

But in NY the longest rides in the subway system are about that distance (W 207 street in Manhattan to Far Rockaway Queens) but it takes well over an hour and most people in NY would dread that ride

It seems that a 24 mile ride in Atlanta on MARTA may not be a big deal? Who knows, i don't live in Atlanta

In NY there is no direct subway to get in to JFK Airport. the JFK skytrain is only 5 years old and you have to transfer to the Skytrain in Queens and you pay when you leave the skytrain at the airport

NY had a 'train to the plane" to JFK from 1979 to 1990 but they canned it. I don't remember why

[atlantagreg30127]

MARTA hasn't done much in the way of expansion in recent years. There's entire threads and topics on here if you search about why it's not in our suburbs (can get very political).

It's a relatively fast subway (once you're on a train) compared to some because you don't have many spurs to deal with. Other than having to transfer sometimes at Lindbergh to go either North or Northeast, most of the time you're dealing with straight shots. Once you leave the downtown/Midtown area, the stations are not as close together as they are in New York or places like London either, so the train zips up to a pretty fast speed in-between stations, getting to the final stop quicker.

Planning wasn't top-notch back when they were building the thing. I think they really were just trying to get it started and built quick before money dried up. Look at the huge gap on their map between the Arts Center and Lindbergh stations - and in a city environment. In New York you'd have several stops in-between those. Maybe they thought we didn't need them then - now they'd be handy, but it's too late. Bad planning.

Anyway - you'll see when you get here - but you'll be safe.

[PeteyNice]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

Planning wasn't top-notch back when they were building the thing. I think they really were just trying to get it started and built quick before money dried up. Look at the huge gap on their map between the Arts Center and Lindbergh stations - and in a city environment. In New York you'd have several stops in-between those. Maybe they thought we didn't need them then - now they'd be handy, but it's too late. Bad planning.

Anyway - you'll see when you get here - but you'll be safe.

It's not too late. The track is there. Putting in a new station would cost money but MARTA already owns the land immediately surrounding the tracks so the only cost would be station construction. While that cost is non-trivial it is a lot cheaper than extending the system to Alpharetta or whatever.

As for why it is faster to travel the same distance on MARTA than on the NYC subway the answer is fewer stations. There are only 20 stations between the airport and North Springs. To put that into perspective. If you boarded the A at 207 St 20 stops puts you at Norstrand Ave in Brooklyn. Seventeen more stops to go to get Far Rockaway.

I would not worry about taking MARTA from the airport. You aren't going to be going to the bad parts of town so you will be fine. Because MARTA is sucha small system is more difficult to miss your stop. There will be lots of people with luggage getting on the train with you.

Oh, and "AirTrain" at JFK is such a scam. It is so expensive and there is no real way to avoid it. There is one bus that serves the airport now and iirc it doesn't even go to an express subway stop. At least at Newark you can take a cheap NJTransit bus to Newark station (and if you are at Terminal A it can be faster than taking the monorail to the Newark Airport Station).

[rlrl]

a train station inside an airport.

[rlrl]

you're from NY? you seem to know both NY and Atlanta

[PeteyNice]

I am! I lived in NYC my whole life until I moved to Atlanta last year.

[rlrl]

Are there any places i can wait near the N Springs station if no one was home at my folks or brothers house--any Starbucks/VCaribou, music stores like FYE, with rest rooms, or someplace to call a cab from?

And Petey nice, where in NY did you live? I live at the end of the #1 train at Van Cortlandt park

[PeteyNice]

I have never been up to North Springs, but mist stations have a taxi stand. I grew up on the corner of Bedford and Downing in the West Village.

[eloquent_alligator]

Whenever I've stopped at NSS, I haven't noticed anywhere else around. You could take 140 to the mall, if you caught the schedule right and had sufficient time to kill to substantiate the trip.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by rlrl

Are there any places i can wait near the N Springs station if no one was home at my folks or brothers house--any Starbucks/VCaribou, music stores like FYE, with rest rooms, or someplace to call a cab from?

And Petey nice, where in NY did you live? I live at the end of the #1 train at Van Cortlandt park

Unfortunately, no...the station is in a very residential area and there's nothing retail within a decent walking distance. There is a taxi stand, though.