MARTA also serves the airport via a station located next to the main terminal. In addition to Atlanta itself, the transit agency serves various suburbs within its service area, including Alpharetta, Avondale Estates, Brookhaven, Chamblee, Clarkston, College Park, Decatur, Doraville, Dunwoody, East Point, Ellenwood, Fairburn, Forest Park, Hapeville, Jonesboro, Lake City, Lovejoy, Lithonia, Morrow, Palmetto, Riverdale, Roswell, Sandy Springs, Stone Mountain, and Union City. MARTA is composed of a heavy rail rapid transit system, a light rail system, and a bus system, all of which operate primarily within the boundaries of Fulton, Clayton and DeKalb counties. The missing rail segments from the original plan include a Tucker-North DeKalb line with service to Emory University and North Druid Hills, a Northwest line with service to Brookwood and Northside Drive, extension of the West line to Brownlee-Boulder Park near Fairburn Road, extension of the Proctor Creek line to West Highlands, and a branch off the south line to Hapeville and Clayton County. The system has since built most of the proposed rail lines, as well as stations in Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and North Springs, which were not included in the original plan. Ĭonstruction began on MARTA's heavy rail system in 1975, with the first rail service commencing on June 30, 1979. Also in 1971, the agency agreed to purchase the existing, bus-only Atlanta Transit Company the sale of the company closed on February 17, 1972, giving the agency control over all public transit in the immediate Atlanta area. In November 2014, however, Clayton County voters passed a 1% sales tax to join the MARTA system, reversing its 1971 decision. Gwinnett County remains outside of the MARTA system. In the same year, four of the five metropolitan area counties (Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett) and the City of Atlanta passed a referendum authorizing participation in the system, but the referendum failed in Cobb.Īlthough a 1968 referendum to actually fund MARTA failed, in 1971, voters in Fulton and DeKalb counties successfully passed a 1% sales tax increase to pay for MARTA operations, while Clayton and Gwinnett counties overwhelmingly rejected the tax in the referendum.
MARTA was formed by an act of the Georgia General Assembly in 1965.
These were the five original counties in the Atlanta metropolitan area, and to this day are the five largest counties in the region and state.
MARTA was originally proposed as a rapid transit agency for DeKalb, Fulton, Clayton, Gwinnett, and Cobb counties. Map of the initial plan of the MARTA system from 1976 In 2021, the entire system (bus and rail) had 50,288,800 rides, or about 162,200 per weekday in the first quarter of 2022. MARTA also operates Mobility, a separate paratransit service for disabled customers. MARTA operates almost exclusively in Fulton, Clayton, and DeKalb counties, although they maintain bus service to two destinations in neighboring Cobb County ( Six Flags Over Georgia and the Cumberland Transfer Center next to the Cumberland Mall), while Doraville station serves portions of Gwinnett County via Gwinnett Transit buses. MARTA's rapid transit system is the eighth-largest rapid transit system in the United States by ridership. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting of 48 miles (77 km) of rail track with 38 train stations. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority ( MARTA, / ˈ m ɑːr t ə/) is the principal public transport operator in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
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