Georgia House has passed a bill to privatize parts of MARTA (Atlanta: transit, business)

[rorqual]

Why would anyone trust people who are against public transport to run it with some "efficiency"? It makes no sense.

And both public and private sectors have their winners and losers: there are a ton of bloated corrupt private companies just like some government agencies. And just like some well run private companies there are also the equivalent stars of government agencies (DARPA, NIH, NASA, NSF, ONR, CIA, etc.).

[0nyxStation]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

It's not about Marta, but power. First of all Georgia have to many counties, which produces too many logjams in local government, and State Government. I sense a lawsuit coming, I'm sure it is a primary authority on the Federal level that could be use to stop all this small mentality silliness in State Government.

You are right about too many counties. That's an aspect that prevents a lot of good things from happening.

[ATL_GUY]

although I am not a fan of privatizing such industries, I still wanna see what will happen. The bottom line, if MARTA was supported in the region, it would be successful. Keith Parker has to be given credit for willing to allow a third party to audit them. For this I must take my hat off to him. This was a great start and good step in the better direction. We'll just have to see what happens and how it turns out. It will either get better or worse. Funding is the key to success and and proper managment of funds.

[ANDS!]

I'm laughing that I come to a thread hoping to find some info on this city (which I'm stuck in for the next couple of years) getting a fix for it's transit system, and instead get a bunch of hoohaw about class war? Oh man.

[cqholt]

Keith Parker has to be given credit for willing to allow a third party to audit them.

It was Dr. Beverly Scott that approved the audit.

[chiatldal]

The private market exist for profit MARTA don't even exist for profit. Yall do realize this will make it harder for MARTA to expand right?

[joey86]

Originally Posted by chiatldal

The private market exist for profit MARTA don't even exist for profit. Yall do realize this will make it harder for MARTA to expand right?

Please, explain how.

[SAAN]

I dont think it is possible for public transportation to make a profit. NYC transit is the biggest and busiest in the country and they lose money, so Marta will not be any better unless it is charging $5 one way and more people start riding it.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by SAAN

I dont think it is possible for public transportation to make a profit. NYC transit is the biggest and busiest in the country and they lose money, so Marta will not be any better unless it is charging $5 one way and more people start riding it.

Won't have the latter, with the former.

[bfarley30]

Originally Posted by arjay57

In my opinion the mantra about MARTA being the only major transit agency that doesn't get state support is way overplayed.

First of all, MARTA has been granted by the state the power to levy a 1% sales tax on every dollar spent in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

I personally think this is just another way for the state to get out of giving MARTA any type of funding for operations.

Originally Posted by arjay57

And needless to say, MARTA is allowed to charge fares which generate around $140 million a year.

Also, bear in mind that many other big transit systems don't get state financing

While I agree that there are other system that aren't supported by the state, the biggest and most successful are. When I say successful I don't mean making a profit I mean doing what they were put there to do, move people and provide options other than driving. I also think the state contributing would mean that fares would be lower. NYCTA fares are JUST hitting $2.50 and their system is the best in the country.

Originally Posted by jsvh

Many of your graphs are not telling the full story btw:

Washington Metro:
DC is a federal district, however, in addition to a lot of federal funding, the surounding counties and Virgina and Maryland provide funding. Fares and other revenue fund 57.6% of the Metro's daily operations while state and local governments fund the remaining 42.4%.
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BART:
"California provides the second highest amount for transit of any state - in FY 2008 the state spent $2,299,578,879 which was eclipsed only by New York's $3,015,441,656. "
California Public Transit Funding: Local and State Revenue Sources and Outlays, and the Future of Spending

CTA:

Who Pays for the CTA? « transportation costs made transparent
*RTA = State Funding = 43.95% of funding from the state


And since you did not include it, MARTA's revenues are: 43% Sales Tax, 19% Federal Funding, 38% Passenger and other Revenues.
http://www.itsmarta.com/uploadedFile...t%20092011.pdf

Great points!!

Also, while it is clear that privatizing SOME functions may be beneficial there still one major problem. There is still the 50/50 restriction. Until that is completely eliminated MARTA will always be at a disadvantage. They will always have to generate a large sum of money which means service cuts and higher fares because they can never take extra money and move it to where it will be most beneficial. Not even to maintain current service levels.

This is why the state should have no control over MARTA generated money. Even if you say "yes the state gave us that" then let us get our money and do what we want with it. This is not big government this is controlling government. If the government steps in but generates money to fix the problem that's one thing. But a state government that does barely anything telling MARTA how to spend its money?! I'd love for someone to come in and control how some of you MARTA haters spend your money. Then let that person tell you that YOU have to figure out how to make ends meet. Can't afford your groceries for the month figure it out. Can't pay your light bill or mortgage make cuts where you need to because even though you generate enough money to pay everything and save you can only spend half on bills and have on maintainence of your house. So if your bills are more than that half you just have to make some cuts in your bills. Y'all would look at that person like the are crazy for coming into your house telling you what to do with your money. Welcome to MARTA's daily grind.

Now you want to have others who probably don't ride MARTA because of their "reasons" in positions to tell MARTA what to do? I guess it's ok though because they chose to live in a MARTA area and pay for it.