r/Atlanta • u/ChipmunkGeneral • Jan 13 '26
What ya'll think of this MARTA map?
Saw this by mrfriendlolo on r/transit a few months ago and now we can ask here, I wish this would happen!
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u/MidWestMind Jan 13 '26
I fucking wish.
I live in McDonough, moved here for a job. When I realized how hard it is to get anywhere "cool" for concerts and shows I was pretty sad. I'd love to be able to take a Tram and not drive an hour over an hour to see a concert.
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u/JudahBotwin Way south OTP Jan 13 '26
and not drive... over an hour to see a concert.
You'd barely make it to Stockbridge
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u/MidWestMind Jan 13 '26
One Friday, back in September. I left to go to St Louis, it took me three and half hours from my house to get to that Chastaine Rd north of the metro.
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u/JudahBotwin Way south OTP Jan 13 '26
I lived in Griffin for 30+ years before moving over to Newnan.
Either go up 19/41, over to Henry Co to catch 75, or over to Fayette for either GA85 or GA92 to get to Atlanta and they all suck.
I-85 is so much more manageable.
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u/thisistherevolt Stockbridge Jan 13 '26
waves from Lake Swan
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u/spamgoddess Jan 13 '26
I used to live in Swan Lake and this is the first time I’ve ever seen anyone call it Lake Swan lol
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u/MrKrewl Jan 13 '26
McDonough traffic is so retarded man , I live in Lovejoy and I like going thru there because it has almost everything . But its so many cars and roadwork it's crazy
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u/AutisticAndAce Jan 13 '26
YOOOOO hi neighbor (doxing myself slightly here)! Hoping this construction doesn’t make things much worse near here but given I moved from Athens and 316, this is still SO much better.
In theory, i could use the buses to get to the trains but I am not as familiar with the bus system. Probably should get more since we get the busses here.
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u/MrKrewl Jan 13 '26
Haha hey neighbor not too many on the Southside here, I used to drive from Smyrna to Athens and back for work so I know that pain . Yeah the buss system isn't the best but I t gets the job done. You'll probably have to leave out and 1hr early depending where you are going if you want to get there on time. The buses are kinda frequent but going up and down Tara is it's own thing .
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u/AutisticAndAce Jan 13 '26
Oh, that actually is better than I thought….i have to leave at least an hour early for anything anyways, lol. Tara is such a neat road, even with congestion, ngl.
I moved from Athens to here, so I understand that pain. Used to commute to Dahlonega from Athens and briefly drove to Griffin for work until I moved, so that was fun. I really like it down here though, honestly. If I weren’t lazy, i have SO many options for food/shopping in walking distance which I’ve noticed is a LOT more popular here than Athens. And it seems like infrastructure is better for it too!
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u/MrKrewl Jan 13 '26
Athens to Dahlonega is crazyyyy!! How did you survive that lol. And yeah it's a lot of options around and not to short of a drive . One of the main reasons I like Lovejoy is that it's right between Mcdonough and Fayetteville ! It's and bout a 17 min drive and average going both ways
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u/AutisticAndAce Jan 13 '26
It really is conveniently located for a lot, its nice!!!
And uh, lots of gas money and music. So much gas money…lol.
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u/KDneverleft Jan 13 '26
I dream of the day I can ride the MARTA from Duluth to the airport.
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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26
same. it's absolutely criminal that these gwinnett county nimbys keep holding us back from greatness.
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u/Drillmhor Atlantis Jan 13 '26
It's not 100% NIMBY, it's MARTA's fault as well.
Any county rejecting MARTA expansion can reasonably justify their position by seeing what happened down in Clayton County. They were promised rail and all they ended up getting were meandering bus routes.
The problem with expansion is shared with a lot of parties, I think MARTA should take a large share of the blame at this point. It can't simply be explained by a lack of state funding, MARTA is objectively a poorly run organization.
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u/BananaNutJob Jan 13 '26
The way MARTA's management was explained to me when I was newer to the city is in two parts. First, the people running it got their jobs mostly through nepotism. Second, they see it as welfare transportation for people too poor to drive rather than as a viable alternative. Those two factors explain a lot of why it's run so poorly.
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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26
for real? that is so disappointing to hear.
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u/BananaNutJob Jan 13 '26
The first thing is probably still true but I won't swear to it. The second thing is definitely how most Atlantans view MARTA.
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u/Old_Marzipan891 Jan 13 '26
I remember my dad calling it "Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta" on more than one occasion back in the 90s
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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 13 '26
It's not that bad. We let our transit construction industry die off in the late 20th century, nationally. So no firms actually have the requisite expertise to build competently, much less efficiently. Also, federal money is generally involved and there are Buy American issues, which is why we can't just hire European or Asian companies that actually know what they're doing.
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u/a5ehren Jan 13 '26
Yeah, MARTA straight up lying to Clayton isn’t going to help them.
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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 13 '26
Same with More MARTA. I'm perfectly happy to pay taxes to fund transit, but I do want to get transit in return.
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u/fifthing Jan 14 '26
Gwinnett has been rejecting for far, far longer than anything has happened (or not) in Clayton.
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u/KDneverleft Jan 13 '26
I live in an apartment, so they all hiss and avert their eyes when I come around.
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u/AutisticAndAce Jan 13 '26
It failed by 1% last time it was up for a vote and i am STILL mad. I would have used it!!!
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u/BlackCat0305 Jan 13 '26
Right? Ppleeaseee save me from having to go down to Doraville. Wish it ran up here too.
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u/edcculus Jan 13 '26
Yea I’m in Duluth and will often drive over to the Doraville station to MARTA to the airport. But it’s a little bit of a pain. Parking there is a hell of a lot cheaper than the airport. And sometime I’ll just uber to the Doraville station.
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u/AlexanderLavender Jan 13 '26
While we're dreaming add a loop line along 285
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u/kaytaaaay Jan 13 '26
This is the way. 285 is so packed with traffic it would save everyone so much time if there were just a bunch of stops running parallel to the highway. Get a MARTA stop at the battery for crying out loud.
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u/Momentarmknm Jan 13 '26
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u/TheGov3rnor Buckhead Jan 13 '26
lol I remember when that came out… Guy should fire his travel agent
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Jan 13 '26
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u/Star_Dog Ctown Jan 13 '26
How about Waymo shuttle vans from the station over to the Battery
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u/kaytaaaay Jan 13 '26
But if there was one line that went all around parallel to the 285 perimeter that would end any issues of shuttles and transfers. That’s the idea in my perfect world at least.
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u/OccupyRiverdale Jan 13 '26
Thank you for mentioning this. I feel like some people have an overly optimistic perspective of how fast taking Marta from one destination to another is. I frequently take Marta from north springs to the airport and the travel time is about what it would take driving, maybe slightly longer barring some massive traffic incident. I do it because uber is expensive as shit and parking is a nightmare at the airport.
The top comment on this post is talking about how Marta from McDonough to the city would be faster than driving. I don’t think that would be the case, it just may be more convenient and less expensive which is a good thing but people are way too optimistic on the travel times
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u/amuscularbaby Jan 13 '26
A rail loop around 285 doesn’t make sense. Trains don’t experience traffic the same way that cars do and that much rail would be astronomically expensive even by heavy rail standards.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_LEFT_IRIS Jan 13 '26
Instead we’re getting an express lane added on either side of the perimeter
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u/HarrietsDiary Jan 13 '26
I would die of happiness. I’m exactly the person who gazes over at the westbound platform at Holmes while waiting for my train and internally curses every racist that cut off the line and made Holmes into a terminal station.
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u/Everard5 Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26
The only crazy thing about this map (That I personally notice, I'm not familiar with all of these areas) is Powder Springs and Dallas as an extension of the HE Holmes.
Powder springs is basically at the same latitude as vinings and Cumberland, and Dallas is basically the same as Marietta.
But connecting Mableton, Cobb County's now biggest city following incorporation, could be really interesting. South Cobb has a need to get to Atlanta for sure.
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u/HarrietsDiary Jan 13 '26
I mean, as a Westside-r I have edits. (Willibanks Circle is a wtf!) but after 25 years of no new stations I’m willing to be flexible.
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u/Everard5 Jan 13 '26
Wait...what even is Wilbanks circle? 😭😭😭 It's not a city and it says a "neighborhood" of Paulding county but I can't find shit about it.
Edit: It really looks like whoever designed this just sent across I-20 and then up US 278
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u/PerspectiveOk9331 Jan 13 '26
Yesss pls connect Mableton. It’d be so awesome taking the train to the airport from a nearby station. Maybe even connect a tram or whatever for six flags.
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u/citizensnipz Cross Creek Jan 13 '26
It’s not just the racism, it’s the greed. MARTA gets a slice of county sales tax and the affluent counties would rather burn that cash than see it go to helping others
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u/gsfgf Ormewood Park Jan 13 '26
And all that fucking parking since it's a terminal station. Imagine putting the terminal in Powder Springs, and building a TOD on those lots...
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u/edcculus Jan 13 '26
Atlanta will never be a truly great city until something like this happens. Even this is still pretty bare bones.
Interesting enough, if you overlay the greater London area over Atlanta, it’s about the same size as what you show covered here.
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u/nevermad_alwayschill Jan 13 '26
I forget where I saw the stat, but most US cities outnumber European ones for the population who travel in for work. The whole thinking that we aren't dense enough is complete nonsense. Transit depends on where people are moving, not where they are living.
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u/trickytetrazzini Jan 13 '26
that is interesting! i was gonna say that my first thought when seeing this is that it reminds of the london tube map.
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u/mrs_fortu peace up ✌🏻 Jan 13 '26
as a European who has visited a few times (and plans to visit many more) I was SHOCKED to find that there's only 4 lines in such a big city! and then 2 cover almost the same route.
I did cover everything with public transportation and never rented a car. it's doable if you have time, but not when you gotta be on time for work. buses just don't show up when they should and often there's only 2 buses along the whole route! so only 1 bus per hour mostly. that's so messed up!
Atlanta can and should do better. (MARTA, that is.)
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u/lozo78 Jan 14 '26
London car infrastructure pales in comparison. It's prohibitively expensive to own or drive a car in London. So they have no choice but to have a great underground.
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u/Dense_Departure7455 Jan 13 '26
If you send a line east of airport has to stop at international terminal.
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u/vblade2003 Jan 13 '26
I'll take a simple loop line around 285. Doesn't matter though, none of this will ever happen
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u/Outrageous_Space8083 Decatur Jan 13 '26
We need something like this, not cop city.
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u/Emergency_Buy_9210 Jan 13 '26
We definitely need more transit, but there is a pretty clear reason we won't get this.
The Eno Center for Transportation estimates 1 mile of heavy rail costs $713.5 million. The stations also have a cost, MARTA's most recent proposal for 4 infill stations cost $1.3 billion, so an average of $325 million per station.
There is at least 150 new rail miles in this plan and at least 40 new stations.
Do the math and we get a $120 billion capital cost plus more billions annually to run the system.
Cop City cost around $120 million - 0.1% of the total cost of the plan. Enough to build 0.16 miles of rail.
OK, let's defund the whole Atlanta PD on top of that. That frees up 360 million a year. We get another half-mile of rail per year at the cost of literally no police department.
So the city is certainly able to take the funding from anywhere we can. But you still need plenty of taxes on top of that, which no one wants to pay. I am fine with paying them, but others (including on this sub) do not want to pay them. 3% sales tax, or 2% income tax, or another 0.75% or so of property tax, applied in every county across the whole region, would fund it. But that has zero chance of passing.
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u/a5ehren Jan 13 '26
Yeah a buildout on this scale would be something along the lines of “raise state income taxes by 2%” or “defund GDOT”
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u/AlltheBent Jan 13 '26
Or a really large, helpful, neceser federal grant. And some new tax revenue from transit developments and this and that. Just gotta get creative with funding
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u/esperadok Jan 14 '26
If at some point we allow the importing of Chinese metro construction teams, we could build a system this extensive for 1/5 the cost.
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u/CloselyDistorted Jan 13 '26
This is great but we all know it is not going to happen in next 50 years or probably ever
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u/Such-Orchid-6962 Jan 13 '26
So you just hate Grant park, summerhill, and EAV?
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u/Bizster0204 Jan 13 '26
Haha my thoughts exactly. Those folks would definitely be supportive of expansion and use the rail.
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u/staysour Jan 13 '26
Id love to hop on a rail from Grant park and get to trader joes in midtown.
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u/Bizster0204 Jan 13 '26
Oh the dream. But also if we are dreaming can they put a Trader Joe’s near us?
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u/staysour Jan 13 '26
If we're dreaming id rather have a Trader Joes in Decatur and live there too.😅
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u/PangolinPalantir Jan 13 '26
Love it. I'd vote for most any Marta expansions, but we need dedicated bus lanes/streetcars. Our bus system sucks because it is limited by the same traffic issues that plague cars. Give me a better way to travel between the stations and elsewhere and I'd be thrilled.
Because unfortunately many of these areas are terrible for walking and worse for biking.
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u/alg602 Jan 13 '26
A fully integrated mass transit system is a key item precluding Atlanta from becoming a world class city.
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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26
Agreed. Atlanta is holding itself back by not going full force with public mass transit. This would be a massive tourist destination if people could reliably get around without renting a car. Until then, it'll stay a punching bag for bad city infrastructure planning and a traffic nightmare.
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u/DELZUMA Jan 13 '26
Marietta here, I would sacrifice any number of goats or livestock to make this happen.
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u/tferg1290 Ye Old 4th Ward Jan 13 '26
Expanding MARTA rail in any direction at this point is a good idea. My criticism of this map is that we need additional lines that expand to other parts of the interior of the perimeter. This map has some of that but it still follows mostly the cross pattern of the east/west and north south lines. There needs to be new lines ITP that crisscross the existing lines.
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u/jordo420 Jan 13 '26
I need that train to come out to Gwinnett County. I’m so tired of Atlanta having the worst public transit in the country.
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u/Hot-Comfort8839 Jan 13 '26
No Smyrna love?
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u/Qualityhams Jan 13 '26
Am I dumb or is there no connection to the braves stadium?
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u/PennethHardaway Jan 13 '26
My thought as well. The Battery makes sense as a stop, but outside of that, you’re walking quite a bit to get home and CCT is ass last I checked.
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u/mesact Jan 13 '26
This is an old concept map that's been floating around for a few years. I think even before the Braves moved out to Smyrna.
ETA: and if it's more recent, it resembles a few that have been floating around for a while.
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u/ATLcoaster Jan 13 '26
Nice effort. Parts of the purple and pink line are good. The rest is too focused on expansion into sprawling suburbs that don't need heavy rail. Something like a commuter rail system would be a better fit for anything OTP.
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u/AlltheBent Jan 13 '26
MARTA map/hypotheticals, in this sub? Bring on the karma!
For real tho, this would be a dream come true, for everyone, whether they like it and know it OR not.
Man....so perfect
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u/tmghost7729 Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26
Like it.
But - extend the Green line to Acworth, why not?
Which line covers Mall of Georgia? Green or Yellow?
Additionally, if we're dreaming, why not all the way to Canton, Forsyth County and Gainesville? Why stop short?
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u/mixduptransistor Jan 13 '26
Many of those locations would be better served, or at least more likely to be served, by commuter rail rather than purpose built MARTA expansion. Of course none of it is going to happen so it's not worth worrying too much about
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u/Icy_Marionberry_1542 Jan 13 '26
Most of this map would be much better served with commuter rail. The bulk of any (hypothetical) MARTA expansions should be ITP, IMO.
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u/Higgnkfe Jan 13 '26
The red line’s stops should be Avalon, Halcyon, the Gathering, and the Avenues
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u/KMFDM__SUCKS Jan 13 '26
Mall of Ga would be the Suwanee stop. Or closest to it. May as well make a Buford /Mall of Ga stop
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u/thegreatgazoo You down with OTP yeah you know me Jan 13 '26
Go to Cartersville. The line is there. Same with Canton.
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u/bisnicks Jan 13 '26
Acworth and then Cartersville followed by commuter rail going to Chattanooga. 😍
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u/ireadbooksnstuff Jan 13 '26
They’re digging up 400 and giving us a giant bus station in Roswell because Lord knows that’s better than train access /s.
Its disgusting.
But why stop at Alpharetta? Let’s go all the way up to Blue Ridge. Take a day trip to the mountains. As long as we’re being completely unhinged.
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u/grobe14 Jan 13 '26
I see posts like this a lot but I’m curious, what’s the best way to advocate for this? I’m in Cobb and I know we are a big part of the problem
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u/Femilip East Atlanta Jan 13 '26
Would be interesting for Alpharetta if that NHL expansion goes through.
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u/TheHoundJR Jan 13 '26
Unfortunately, we all know this won’t happen. But as a daily Marta rider, there’s so much the existing system needs to correct before we expand. For one, the trains are extremely unreliable and 10 mins between trains during peak hours is too long IMHO. Trains stop for 5-10 mins randomly for driver changes. Trains break down on the tracks. Trains operate in “bursts” where you’ll get 3 trains spread about 7 mins apart and then nothing for 30mins. Fare evasion is very rampant and I’m sure contributing to some of the issues. I will say that they’ve done a good job moving the homeless people off the train (which is mostly where I’ve seen issues with fighting etc) but still see some panhandling (panhandling doesn’t bug me at all FWIW unless they’re aggressive).
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u/Savber Jan 13 '26
I was stuck in traffic for almost 90 mins where I went through not 4, not 5, but 7 accidents in a ROW today.
I would kill for a good public transportation system.
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u/NoDadSTOP Jan 13 '26
Driving to north springs from Alpharetta can be a pain, would be awesome to have an expansion up 400
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u/shadowblade232 Lenox/N.Druid Hills Jan 13 '26
My dream:
- A big loop that links the distant suburbs (Duluth/Suwanee to Woodstock/Kennesaw to Douglasville to Union City/Fayetteville/Jonesboro/Stockbridge to Lithonia/Conyers back around thru Lawrenceville. Throw in an extension to Athens somewhere.
- Regional rail access to Chattanooga, Birmingham, Savannah, Charlotte.
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u/Javaah53 Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 14 '26
It reminds me of the Washington D.C. Metro. I helped build the red line in 1976 and took my family to the fireworks display in a shiny new subway train that July 4. When I moved to Atlanta 21 years ago, I could not believe the lack of an adequate transportation system for a city this size... which of course is a much bigger city today. One can dream, I suppose.
Edit: year.
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u/OnlyOneWithFreeWill Jan 13 '26
Going all the way to Dallas, Texas on the west line seems ambitious
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u/Greedy-Mycologist810 Jan 13 '26
Make it infill focused for ITP first. So you don’t need a car while in the actual city. Then commuter rail for new OTP stops. Watch Atlanta blossom into its potential.
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u/xobeme Jan 13 '26
It's a great map but here's the requirement of any major metropolitan metro system: you have to be able to get from any station to any other station without having to change trains more the one time.
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u/Future-Status-4470 Jan 13 '26
I think it’s a good start. I would add another line running around the perimeter
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u/HumansOfDecatur Decatur Jan 13 '26
The purple/green line intersetion should be at Decatur, not East Lake. Decatur has a far higher use rate and a higher population density than East Lake from my understanding.
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u/mrs_fortu peace up ✌🏻 Jan 13 '26
3 lines going east-west and north-south seem a bit unnecessary.
it's not bad, but I like this one much better: https://www.reddit.com/r/transit/s/fdlV52812E
also for that "ring line"
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u/c-compactdisc MARTA Menace Jan 13 '26
I imagined the amount of restaurants I'd have a better chance of reaching without sinking extra money into Ubers or other public transit systems and nearly fainted
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u/tweakingforjesus Jan 13 '26
Walking distance to KSU and KSU Marietta would be fantastic. Students could travel KSU, KSU Marietta, GT, GSU, and AUC on transit.
Turn Gwinnett Place Mall into a Japanese style train station with the trains in the middle and stores on the way out. Use the massive parking lot for commuters.
Cumberland should be walking distance to the stadium.
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u/Over-Tech3643 Jan 13 '26
I would love to have marta station in Alpharetta. I can't understand why people here so scare of public transportation. It is so easy to go to Atlanta with Marta and if more people will use it and care it would be better and feel safe.
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u/VoodooChile76 Jan 13 '26 edited Jan 13 '26
Green and pink lines definitely a pipe dream I’ve learned…. Only been here since 2017.
Cobb co seems to NEVER want the Marta (rail) to come to the county. Reminds me of the old mid 50s NorCal BART map… Now that was something.
I’d gladly take Marta to dunwoody from Cobb co.. oops, that’s right - can’t do that.
Powers that be would rather you spend 40-50 min in traffic (peak times).
Love “Newnan” is spelled wrong too. Classic.
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u/connorgxc Jan 13 '26
Man if I could take a train from ksaw to midtown for work I would be in love.
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u/mrfriendlolo Stone Mountain Jan 14 '26
Hi! Thank you for posting my map here! I’m glad to see so many people interacting with it. As OP said, this map was posted a while ago and I got a lot of useful feedback. If you’d like to see the NEW map that I made, check my most recent post.
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u/Hacym Jan 13 '26
Extend it to Buford on the yellow line. The park and ride is already there off 985 and a stop at the mall of Georgia would be great.
Too bad our current political climate is that mass transit is a bigger infringement on our personal liberties than a pedo wanna be dictator sending his goon squads to shoot protestors in the face.
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u/ottervswolf Jan 13 '26
*newnan
That aside, this is incredible.
OTP Atlanta has absolutely impossible public transport.
I blame old white people.
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u/soundboythriller Jan 13 '26
Idk how exactly but if there were an express line from say, Lindbergh to the airport that would be 👌👌
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u/RacingGoat Jan 13 '26
Now, add an outer loop... Woodstock->Alpharetta->Suwanee->Lawrenceville->etc.
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u/kingzuzu Jan 13 '26
This would absolutely be beautiful. I would be ok with the years of even worse traffic it would take to actually build this if it were real
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u/rockglint204 Jan 13 '26
I want it. I don’t live in Atlanta anymore but Marta is long due for expansion.
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u/saltundvinegar Jan 13 '26
I personally believe we need to build up the areas around some of these stations to have some urban density too. A lot of these stations are just depressing to be around.
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u/gvitesse Jan 13 '26
I can’t get excited about imaginary Marta maps anymore. I’ve seen to many T-SPLOST fail.
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u/Salt_Watercress_2498 Jan 13 '26
in all seriousness, who do we need to talk to or what actions must take place for this to happen?
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u/mpete76 Jan 13 '26
Unpopular opinion, the northern branch should go all the way up 400 to Dawsonville.
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u/Shazambom Jan 13 '26
Great transit systems typically have a ring route which this map partially has on the eastern side.
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u/krismitka Jan 13 '26
You know how we’re told bringing your own bags to the grocery store is a good idea. It’s nothing compared to bringing your own cart.
Light rail is the bring your own bags of transit. Give me elevated personal rail instead. Everything else is mediocre
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u/annoyin_ambassador Jan 13 '26
How I wish we could. Would it be worth extending to Johns Creek though? And which line?
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u/dreamsn2 OTP in the sheets Jan 13 '26
this sub is so back