MARTA Raises Fairs

For the first time since 2001, MARTA fares are going up. After months of buildup, MARTA’s board of directors has approved a budget including $2 fares, going up from $1.75.

The higher fare will start on Oct. 1.

However, rail service will not be cut back till midnight, as staff had proposed, but will keep going until 1 a.m.

MARTA CEO Beverly Scott said staff found the money to do that by making an accounting change with the money they set aside for retirees’ medical benefits. By putting the money in a restricted account, she said, MARTA can put aside less money without affecting the funds that eventually go to the retirees.

In a work session before the board meeting, board member Steve Stancil argued to scale back the rail service anyway but give Scott the power to restore it at her discretion, since the economy was so uncertain.

Other board members argued that the proposal to stop rail service early drew the biggest complaints from the biggest range of riders, and that going back and forth would cause administrative problems.

“Far, far and away that was the biggest issue people had,” said MARTA board chairman Michael Walls, who heard from riders at public hearings last week. “It cuts across all the classes,” from poorer people returning from late-night jobs to better-off people attending evening events downtown.

Events organizers wrote MARTA a letter last week asking it to reconsider the rail service cutback. The chief operating officer of the Chick-fil-A Bowl addressed the board before its vote Monday to reiterate the message and let them know the negative impact it would have on events.

Along with the 1 a.m. rail service, MARTA staff recommended keeping three sets of buses, after learning the impact to riders would be worse than they thought, extending wait times more than was originally apparent. Those were along Fulton Industrial Boulevard, in the Emory University area, and in Chamblee.

None of that changed the need to reduce service overall to balance MARTA’s budget, so both trains and buses will run less frequently. Also, in location where MARTA charges for parking now, those fees will go up by $1.

MARTA’s budget problems came with the economy. The agency depends partly on a sales tax collected in Fulton and DeKalb counties, and less of it is coming in as people spend less.