MARTA lowest nationally in expense per passenger mile rail based transit

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by cwkimbro

by all means all of these cities had the same funding issues during the 70s-90s.

The difference was they had a larger legacy system left behind.

You correct. All of those systems were built by private companies before being taken over by transit agencies. All those systems get a lot of state funding too because those states realize that for a major city to function it must have transit. Also, the more successful the state's major city is the more successful the state is, something GA legislators haven't figured out yet!

[MattCW]

Expansiveness doesn't necessarily mean quality. If MARTA were to expand rapidly today, I'd expect to see the same clean trains and right of way, and the same fare control system that we have now. While I agree that the whole point of a transit system is to move a lot of people, and you have to go where the people are or want to go, MARTA does an exceptional job on the small system it has. In fact, I think our fare control system is far better than either New York or Boston's, mostly because you have to have the correct amount on your card to enter and to leave whereas once you're in the other cities' systems, you can just leave which means all fare evasion interdiction must occur prior to or during the evader entering the system.