Add It Up: ’sMARTA, but also broke
December 15, 2008 at 11:11 am by Scott Henry in NewsProjected MARTA budget shortfall for the current fiscal year, in millions of dollars: 60
MARTA operating expenses for FY09, in millions of dollars: 396
Percentage increase in total MARTA ridership from August 2007 to August 2008: 11.5
Number of years since rail service began in 1979 that MARTA has seen a higher ridership increase: 2
Total annual operating funding MARTA receives from state of Georgia, in dollars: 0
Number of other major metropolitan areas whose public transit agency receives no state funding: 0
Total annual operating funding MARTA receives from the federal government, in millions of dollars: 42
Potential liability faced by MARTA due to lease-back deal with now-collapsed insurer AIG, in millions of dollars: 391
Maximum percentage of revenue from local 1-cent sales tax that MARTA is allowed to spend on system operations: 50
Percentage of MARTA operating costs covered by sales tax revenue: 52
Estimated percentage by which U.S. consumer spending will drop in 2009: 1
Number of years since the U.S. had a bigger slump in consumer spending: 67
Sources: MARTA, ajc.com, Bloomberg
December 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
If they’d do something about the rampant fare-jumping, they might make up some of that. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been shadowed gruffly through the flippy doors by individuals of an unseemly and often odiferous nature. And why are there fifty MARTA cops at the Peachtree stations and not a one at Decatur on Saturday mornings? Is my safety not as important as Ima Visitin from Omaha?
December 16th, 2008 at 8:44 am
sure enough, every time something about marta is posted you get some genius like “smartaR” posting a bunch of myths and half-truths about marta.
rampant fare jumping?? WTF? i ride marta every day and never see this. and marta stations attendants at all the breeze gates to watch for this. i have also notice that the bus drivers are especially vigilant about refusing to board psgrs without fare loaded.
wow? no cops at the decatur station on saturday morning? that must be why i keep reading all these reports of rampant crime sprees at the decatur marta station on saturday mornings.
whatever.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
so more paying customers and higher ridership will fix the problem, smartaR? Well the nyc subway moves about 30x the people each day that marta does, and guess what all those paying customers get for their effort….a $1.2 billion deficit.
Like the story said, sales tax declines and no help from the state are to blame.