MARTA eyes bus service reductions, Braves shuttle elimination (Updated)

MARTA’s board today unveiled its proposed budget. And as expected, the largest transit agency in metro Atlanta will be slimming down.

In addition to potentially dipping into its reserves for $69 million, transit officials propose to balance next fiscal year’s budget with cost-cutting measures that include:

?

• Ending shuttle service to Atlanta Braves games and Lakewood Amphitheatre. Those cuts wouldn’t take effect until next season. I’m waiting to hear from Braves officials to see how they feel this might impact home games and if they plan to operate any kind of service.

?

• Reducing the number of bus routes from 131 to 90. Bus service area coverage would decrease by 30 percent, from 1,479 miles to 997 miles. Total service hours would be reduced by 11 percent. (MARTA plans to upload the full the list of cut routes to its website. Once they do so, we’ll post ‘em here.) Routes listed for the chopping block include: Nos. 18 (South Decatur), 28 (Village of East Lake), 38 (Chastain Park), 44 (Northside Drive), 45 (Virginia-Highland), 57 (Collier Heights), 67 (West End), 113 (Atlantic Station/Auburn Avenue), 139 (Lenox/Chamblee) and 397 (Cherokee Avenue/Grant Park). Keep in mind that some of the discontinued routes were underperforming and already eyed for elimination. Other routes have been absorbed by nearby buses. Once I post the list of what’s been cut and what’s been modified, you’ll see what I mean. Good news: Trains will run until 1 a.m.

?

• Eliminating 743 positions, 392 of which are warm bodies. You know, actual working people.

?

• Increasing the cost of weekly, monthly and mobility passes.

MARTA General Manager Bev Scott said the proposed cost-cutting measures are “devastating” and “woefully inadequate” for the transit agency’s ability to shuttle riders and woo federal funding. She added that such cuts would chip away at what’s becoming an “already skeletal” system.

MARTA will now hold public hearings to gauge public input before the board’s final vote on June 28. We’ll post details about those hearings — the first of which takes place on Monday, June 7 — tomorrow. If approved, service cuts would take effect on Sept. 25.

(Photo by Joeff Davis)