Hoping MARTA comes up with spiteful service cuts
April 6, 2009 at 10:17 am by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsOn Friday, the state legislature let die a bill that would have allowed MARTA to spend money from its $65 million capital improvement fund to help plug its $20 million operating shortfall.
Because of the city-phobic legislature’s malicious inaction, MARTA will be forced to cut vital services. The transit system’s board is scheduled to meet today to discuss service cuts. Among the options being considered: shutting down MARTA on Fridays.
I’m in a spiteful mood today and would love it if MARTA targets its service cuts in ways that maximize their impact on voters and businesses who support the Redneckocrats who dominate the statehouse.
For example, Home Depot founder and sashimi collector Bernie Marcus backs the state Republican Party. Maybe MARTA should cease operating near Home Depot stores. Maybe MARTA could also run shuttle buses to Lowes. I’d also like it if APD resources assigned to the area around the Georgia Aquarium were reassigned to the West End or Sylvan Hills.
And I definitely want MARTA to shut all north side operations during sporting events and country music concerts. Let it serve as a reminder to north-side suburban voters that their support of city-hatin’ Republicans has consequences.
My examples may not be serious, but my overall point is very serious. If the Republican-dominated state legislature continues trying to destroy the city, the city should fight back.
Or secede.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:25 am
At least discontinue service for Jill Chambers’ district.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Completely agree with you, Andisheh. How about cutting service to the airport?
April 6th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Absolutely ridiculous that the capital funds weren’t available for budget gaps. I ride Marta every day and need it for my job. Thanks, Ms. Chambers. You might need to add me to the list of those who lost their job in ‘09.
April 6th, 2009 at 10:58 am
The south will rise again.
Also, I’m really pissed that they voted to not extend MARTA further into Gwinnett county. I mean they could make the trains look like Escalades if it makes the elite feel better.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:24 am
What’s not serious about these proposals? I think this should be the mindset moving forward – no more mister nice guy. Cut transfers between GRTA buses while your at it and enforce parking increases for non-DeKalb and Fulton residents.
The same thing should go for Grady Hospital emergency care – no more free rides on the backs of Fulton and DeKalb residents – a kick in the ass may be the only thing those morons understand.
What a total embarrassment.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:25 am
We’re supposed to get an update from MARTA General Manager Bev Scott later this afternoon. Most repeated rumor is that Friday service will be cut.
Makes you wonder how that’s going to impact people leaving work on Fridays and heading to the airport. Hello, missed flights!
April 6th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Time and time again, the Georgia Legislatures show their complete contempt for Atlanta. It is shameful. If it wasnt for the economic engine that Atlanta provides, this state would be Mississippi. First, the earlier fiasco where the Ga DOT almost jeopardized the Beltline and now this.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:44 am
This may sound crappy, but it has to be Friday. That’s the day with more impact on Atlanta’s traffic, which means it will be the biggest embarrassment to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce types. No MARTA on Fridays should get them on the horn yelling to their state Republican lackeys (see Cagle, Richardson, Chambers, et al) to do something about the clusterf*ck it will cause.
April 6th, 2009 at 11:54 am
Umm, how am I supposed to get to school at GSU on Fridays??
Atlanta’s mass transit is a joke compared to other major metropolitan cities. Aside from environmental impacts, traffic in this city has a huge detrimental impact on productivity, which effects tax revenues, which would be further confounded by a decrease in marta services.
Marta should never have spent all that money to install silly tv’s in the marta buses and trains that serve no purpose and which no one pays attention to anyway, in part b/c you need an FM receiver to listen which no one has anymore (replaced by ipods, etc). Now marta has to pay for a lame broadcast service to keep the programs on.
They need to shut that down and start investing in advertising revenue. They collect the attention spans of millions of riders everyday, and still have yet to take full advantage of paid advertisements that could fill the gap in the operating budget.
April 6th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
GSU Student,
What in the world are you talking about?! MARTA is EARNING money from those tv screens via a contract with TransiTV, who is administering the advertising side of it and giving MARTA a sizable cut of the revenue. Yup, outsourcing at work, my friend!
Besides, those TV screens were put in partly because MARTA was trying to convert some of that tied-up capital improvement funding into a revenue generator.
Now please tell us exactly how MARTA is supposed to earn an additional $20 million a year in an advertising market where even the big broadcasters are losing money? Geez, I sure hope you’re not a business major…
April 6th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
What TPA said. Far from frivolously spending money, MARTA has done everything they possibly can to RAISE money, from in-car TV ads to wrapping whole trains with billboards. You want a world-class transit system; someone’s got to pay for it. MARTA has had to spend far too much time defending its mere right to exist.
Friday cuts would definitely impact my ability to work and to attend school (at GSU – we’re not all misinformed), but perhaps it’d be better in the long run if it would serve to wake up the business interests and government officials who have the power to do something. What a backwards, embarrassing state we live in.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
Secede! Secede!
April 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Fridays? FRIDAYS!? I don’t want to see MARTA cut ANY day of service, but it would make more sense for it to be a weekday instead of during the work week, when the majority of MARTA riders are commuting to and from work.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Sorry, that should have read “to be a weekEND” instead of weekday.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Maybe they will shut down all northbound lines and keep the degenerates confined to the city.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
god it’s weird to be in 100 percent agreement with you, andy.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
I agree with the blogger, this is just so stupid of our so called watchers over the city..maybe we should also boycott outside of each and everyone of their homes and businesses.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I have yet to read a story on this issue that explains why they are suggesting Friday as the shutdown day. If it’s to create maximum havoc (and thus, leverage) it would be nice to have that clearly stated by someone.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
TGIF:
They have a need to save $24 million. The options are to either cut a single weekDAY of service (Friday has the lowest ridership numbers) or a combo of weekend service cuts. Here’s the options:
1. No bus and rail service one day a week, every week of the year.
2. Modified Saturday service from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the bus system; rail service only from 7 to 7 on 48 out of 52 Saturdays a year, with no service on Sundays, period.
3. No Saturday service on 28/52 Saturdays and every Sunday.
April 6th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
And here are the ridership numbers:
Monday: 199,596
Tuesday: 194,842
Wednesday: 194,804
Thursday: 199,177
Friday: 183,733
Saturday: 112,929
Sunday: 61,622
BTW, this is all from MARTA’s own community presentation PowerPoint slides, which are located on its Web site.
April 6th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
As an Atlanta resident I’ve had plenty of practice in trying to shrug off the poor decisions that get made at the state level. But this is downright frightening. You don’t have to be able to think too many steps ahead to see what this is going to mean for residents, businesses, tourism, conventions, et al. Georgia has a serious crisis of leadership right now and someone needs to step up and bring us back from the brink. Sonny, are you listening (by any remote chance?).