I've been conferring with Sarah on the whole Marta thing, and it looks like the Breeze *ticket* (50 cents) is the way to go; I can then load it up with about $12 in trips, and that should cover the back-and-forth to the airport and excursions to the Vortex or wherever...
Using MARTA (Atlanta's rail and bus transportation system)
- Thread starter miel
- Start date
- Feb 17, 2009
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MARTA just published a new, informative video - the Peachtree Center rail station accesses many tourist attractions: the aquarium, World of Coke, CNN Center, Centennial Olympic Park, etc. There's also a food court when exiting the station - it's 4 stops before the Arts Center station (when coming from the airport).
~Jen
~Jen
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Never happen. Atlanta has a two-track system on the Mainline. Only NYC has a TRUE 24/7 system where the subway and buses run 24/7 (Chicago has only a part-time 24/7 system on their subway). The reason is that, unlike most cities, we do track work while the trains are running on that line. And, if we need to close a line for any reason, we can "run around" the problem via the express tracks on that line.
However, the reason why Metros and Subways around the world close overnight is passenger and equipment safety. As I said above, most Metros and Subways are two-track systems. At night, those systems have workers walk the tracks to check for deformities in the rails or signaling systems. Some systems have rail equipment that will ride the tracks looking for deformities. If found, they can be fixed immediately and quickly. Now, if this was not done, and a problem arose during the morning rush, the line in question is screwed as nothing can move. Perfect example was in Singapore last year. A break was found in the Third Rail during the morning rush. That line's service was destroyed for the better part of 24 hours!
But, your question was why can't MARTA be 24/7? The answer is that the overnight hours are the only time when they can do track repairs and inspections safely.
freakchylde
PPUSA Driver o' Doom!!!!!
And the fact that the system is already low on funds, and paying the wages they pay then having to include the additional funds for the grave yard shift = bankrupt. I'll give MARTA credit for constantly analyzing their routes and making changes as needed, including later hours for routes that do have enough riders to support them. But their wages are off the roof and completely unsustainable with the funding set-up they have. They have a lot of improvements they could make, but that requires an act of Congress to re-organize them.
Here in DC, we can only dream of a system like that, where it seems like there is always someplace in the system that is single-tracking, because there is no way to "run around" anything in this system.
BTW, it should be noted somewhere in this thread that the Breeze card is now required as of last year.
There are cases where we have to do that as well. We do have areas of the system that only has two tracks. However, when we do "single-tracking" (known as an "absolute block" around these parts), it is usually done on weekends or on the overnight. It was fun back in the day when we carried a "baton" to hand off to the train going into the singles-track.
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