Atlanta, GA MARTA Heavy Rail System

From Crowne Plaza Atlanta Ravinia Dunwoody GA--

I've just completed a MARTA joyride to Five Points and return; overall, quite positive.

I think the last time I set foot on MARTA was likely thirty years ago so it was time for an update. Fare collection is no longer "pay and go" but rather making a purchase of a "Breeze" cars. While I am eligible for a $.95 Senior fare darned if I were to know how to get it, so I just ponied up the $2.50 for each trip plus the $1.00 for the "Breeze" card.

The train was clean and the operation efficient. From Dunwoody, which was a walk from this hotel, the trip to Five Points wasa barely twenty minutes. While Downtown, I explored what was formerly the site of Terminal and Union Stations; both are largely covered by the Convention Center, CNN, and an Omni hotel. I did get to see some "action"; namely an NB CSX coal train (MTY) handled with BNSF power; and guess what, I actually took a picture of it.

Went to a bar in Underground Atlanta; the place certainly looks more "gentrified" that it did when I was last there, again, thirty years ago. It also, as an aside, looked rather "depopulated".

The train back to Dunwoody was also efficient; I noted that the station announcement for Arts Center included mention of a transfer to Amtrak. There was then a ten minute walk back to this hotel (of which five minutes was likely consumed by trying to "X" Ashford Dunwoody Road "by the book").

And that was that.

Friday April 12 was my first ride on MARTA to get from here to there and back for a purpose other than a joyride. This journey was from Dunwoody (North Point Red Line) to Arts Center and return to attend an Atlanta Symphony concert.

The hotel at which I stay in Dunwoody (Crowne Plaza) is quite convenient to MARTA with a 1/2 mi walk, while the walk is no issue to me, how to "pay up" is - and as I noted in a "trip report" posting regarding Miami Metrorail, the most daunting task for an out of towner using mass transit is just that. Fortunately, I still had (and remembered to bring it) a fare card from last year (called a "Breeze" card), but still the "pressure" from possibly missing a train and from impatient people waiting can get someone my age and an electronic Luddite "rattled". Fortunately, a Good Samaritan stepped up - this twentysomething kid had an "honest face" so I just gave him my card and a $5 and I was "good to go" in what seemed like ten seconds. I then heard a train coming and so did this kid; this almost 72 year old "held his own" up the stairs. We both made it.

The ride to Arts Center (also the closest stop for Amtrak) was uneventful, but now time for the fun. While time was hardly an issue, "how to get there" was. I knew that Woodruff PAC (anyone feel like walking in there and saying "Pepsi please"?) had a Peachtree Street address. So like some tourist rube, I noted a sign saying "to Peachtree St" and exited. No sign of any building that could be an auditorium; I think I was "lost" and for once in this life, I wished I had a "smartphone" with a Google map "app" (my 2007 vintage LG clamshell makes and receives voice phone calls, thank you). Well, it was time to do things the "old fashioned way"; otherwise known as ask someone. I asked a young couple and I got a "sir, Woodruff is on the OTHER Peachtree Street". "Walk West over MARTA and that will be the Peachtree you want; Woodruff is a big White building". Thanks to those directions found it without further incident, but still twenty minutes to go 300 yards "as the crow flies".

The ASO is indeed a World Class ensemble.

For the return, at the concert I was seated next to a couple that live near Lake Lanier, but use MARTA from North Point to get into town. Again I was glad to meet them. We were back at MARTA in five minutes (she needed the elevator) and the 300 yards noted earlier. Now it was time to learn about MARTA's version of the "Carter Cuts" (wasn't he GAGuv when the system was being built?) - namely that the Red Line to Dunwoody and North Point does not operate South of Lindbergh. This means that for evening hours, one using Red Line must change trains. Somehow, I think I would have :caught the drift" on my own, but it was much easier to have these nice people, a retired Foreign Service officer, just saying here is where we get off and wait for the next train. At Dunwoody, it was handshakes, hugs, and a "thank you and farewell". Some ten minutes later (I don't think Dunwoody is "exactly" a high crime area), I was walking into the hotel.

All told, the trip was made relatively "flawless" thanks to some heartfelt "Southern Hospitality". It certainly beat the alternative of "the 400" and, IMHO, the world's worst drivers.

In all seriousness now, I'm glad you had a relatively good experience with MARTA. I do however think that is one place MARTA could drastically improve, is in the public information about the fare system, and the red line evening cutoff. Directions in-town are an Atlanta thing however. Unless you know where you're going you can easily get lost. I find direction signs and maps to be extremely rare in Atlanta. Probably still part of the car-centric nature of the city.