In One Of America's Most Congested Cities, MARTA Officials Pushing To Cut One Weekday Of Service

[hatrack]

ATLANTA -- For the half a million people who depend on MARTA, a devastating cut could be on the way. The state legislature didn't vote to allow MARTA to use more of its own money. Now, MARTA officials say it will have to cut a day of service during the week -- and lay off hundreds of workers.

Mass transit as we know it is on the brink of some major changes in Metro Atlanta. This as a funding crisis could adversely affect the future of MARTA. The options now are few: possibly end bus and train service one day a week in addition to scaling back schedules on weekends.

"I can understand they have some restraints as far as they're budgets and so forth but there are a lot of folks that don't have cars and rely on the MARTA," said commuter Alex Morrison.

"I have a car, but everyone doesn't have a car to rely on, so it will affect the economy of Atlanta in some ways," said Denorris Johnson, another MARTA commuter.

EDIT

http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=128771&catid=40

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Really, really dumb.

In a downturn you want to INCREASE access, not reduce it. More and more people whose hours are cut or jobs lost will lose their cars, making them dependent on public transit. People whose hours are cut will relinquish their $50/mo downtown parking spaces in favor of a $30/mo bus pass, because that extra $20 can be crucial.

Cutting weekend hours I can understand (though also disapprove of) but cutting WEEKDAY service?

Instead of canceling service on a particular day, how about cutting service hours - only run the transit between 6AM-9AM and 4PM-7PM - allowing people to get to work in the morning, and home in the evening? It would be inconvenient for some, but sufficient for the vast majority of riders.

[depakid]

2. Brilliant move, eh?

Kansas City is in a similar situation-

"“It is both ironic and tragic that at a time when public transit ridership has been soaring and at a time when working families are seeking cost effective alternatives to automobile ownership, the state’s two largest metropolitan areas are facing a financial crisis in providing reliable, efficient public transit options,” KCATA General Manager Mark Huffer wrote in a letter."

http://www.stltoday.com/blogzone/along-for-the-ride/along-for-the-ride/2009/04/kc-transit-agency-appeals-to-state-too/

This is one of the reasons why is was so profoundly stupid for the Obama administration and the Congressional Dems to cut $40 billion in federal revenue sharing out of the stimulus (as if recession worsening deals like this weren't eminently foreseeable).

[Warpy]

3. Local governments got cut to the bone under Stupid's administration

due to block grants being slashed because of the loss of revenue from his reckless tax cuts to billionaires and corporations.

This is what small government means, people, a government that supports a military to protect the rich but which does nothing for the rest of us.

Las Vegas is under fire for cutting health care. Atlanta will be under fire for slashing public transportation. With local governments operating so close to the edge, everything that is cut will hurt us all one way or another.

Nothing has made me angrier over the years than seeing the country basically starved to death to fatten the Republicans and Wall Street Democrats by fattening their protected class, the rich.

Only when our government starts to become more afraid of us than they are of billionaires will anything change.

In the meantime, Atlanta, buy some comfortable shoes because you'll be walking a lot more. I prefer New Balance and Reebok, but you can let your own feet be your guide.

[phantom power]

4. Somewhere, Grover Norquist is having an orgasm.

[damntexdem]

5. The idiots are out to ruin this entire country.

Starting in places like Georgia.

[jpak]

6. Yeah the Gawja legislature knows what "MARTA" really stands for

Old times there are not forgotten...