WaPo: A lonely road (East Point, Decatur: house, buses, safety)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by MattCW

To what?

You outlandish statement. If the the audit was complete and KP is ignoring it, you should be able to request it thru open records.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by cqholt

You outlandish statement. If the the audit was complete and KP is ignoring it, you should be able to request it thru open records.

Go ride MARTA. Expansive slow-orders on the tracks (the Red/Gold lines lose 36 minutes EACH HOUR at rush hour now), doors that barely work half the time, delays on top of delays, mismanagement of delays, etc. If the audit was so high in priority for MARTA, we'd be hearing bits and pieces about it, at least whether or not it's ongoing.

[Pemgin]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Go ride MARTA. Expansive slow-orders on the tracks (the Red/Gold lines lose 36 minutes EACH HOUR at rush hour now), doors that barely work half the time, delays on top of delays, mismanagement of delays, etc. If the audit was so high in priority for MARTA, we'd be hearing bits and pieces about it, at least whether or not it's ongoing.

I ride it. I don't share your experiences.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

I ride it. I don't share your experiences.

Then you don't ride it. The Red/Gold slow zone just north of the Arts Center tunnel costs 90 seconds per train, or 1.5 minutes. Times 6 trains per hour is 9 minutes, times two directions is 18 minutes, times two lines is 36 minutes for each hour during the 10 minute headways.

Just a few weeks ago, I was listening to the daily fowl-up in the morning (I have a scanner that can receive MARTA's transmissions). It took them 20 minutes to get a disabled train (due to door problems...) at Lindbergh out of the way, all the while playing games with the other trains. Once the train was clear of passengers, they could have run it into the pocket track and waited till the next gap in NB trains to run it into Armour. But did they do that? Oh no, they had to run SB trains reverse through Lindbergh (SB on NB track) which clogged up the NB trains which were being told to hold as far away as East Point! The SB trains had to cross back over at Arts Center because they were moving the disabled train into the pocket track, but then once it was in there, they still had to hold the SB and NB trains while they reconfigured the routes. So instead of just making the two immediately-following SB trains hold short of Lindbergh and hold up a few passengers for the 5 minutes to clear the main, they held up EVERYONE northbound and southbound alike! I listened to just about the entire thing and their lame yakety-sax-esque attempts to do...something. Hrm, maybe MARTA's philosophy is to treat everyone equally: "A few people are going to be late to work, so let's make EVERYONE late to work!"

[Pemgin]

Well, I'm not counting seconds like you nor do I have the wherewithal to get a scanner to listen to MARTA transmissions. You make it sound like major delays are a daily occurrence. They're not.

[JoeTarheel]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

I think there's a bit of overreaction here.

Looking at her commute, I was trying to figure out the hang up, and here it is: her shelter is 3.3 miles from the airport, and that bus ride is 58 minutes long. That's insane. She could walk there faster. Or ride a bike. That's the real problem here, the bus takes almost an hour to go 3.3 miles. Once she's on the train, the bus from Hightower station is only 36 minutes to the job site, which is almost 9 miles.

Sooo....one bus can go 9 miles in 36 minutes, but another takes almost an hour to go 3.3 miles. There's the problem.

The overall commute is almost 21 miles by car. So I think it's unfair to single out Atlanta, because I can't think of ANY city where you can easily commute a distance that long, from suburb to suburb, in a short amount of time using public transit. Except maybe New York, and even then, it's only if you are going from the RIGHT suburb to the RIGHT suburb. I mean, we can't just connect everywhere to everywhere overnight, especially paths like Forest Park to Fulton Industrial, which isn't a typical commute for most people.

She's got a bad case because she's a shelter in an area that has no transit. That shelter should offer shuttle service to the airport MARTA station. And in fact, Cavalry Refuge DOES have a van! Read all about it here: calvary-refuge-ctr


The van was stolen, but has since been replaced. I doubt it would schelp her all the way to Fulton Industrial, but I'm sure it would take her to the airport and cut out that hour long bus ride.

Anyway, I'm not saying transit can't be, and shouldn't be, improved. But come on, this article is a bit melodramatic.

I agree...it's a sad situation and I feel for her, but it is being over-dramatized a bit. This situation could honestly happen in any city - even one with great transit - if the destination was not one that is not easily covered by transit. Even in NYC there are areas that are difficult to reach without a car, and trying to go to the opposite side of Atlanta is not an easy task even with a car. 30 minute drive? Maybe at 2:00 am on a weekday.

I'm not trying to minimize the transit issues we have, but publishing a sad story like this isn't going to change minds. Results is the only way to do that in my opinion.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by Pemgin

Well, I'm not counting seconds like you nor do I have the wherewithal to get a scanner to listen to MARTA transmissions. You make it sound like major delays are a daily occurrence. They're not.

That doesn't jive with his "It's all Keith Parker's fault and he should be fired" narrative though.

[MattCW]

Originally Posted by Gulch

That doesn't jive with his "It's all Keith Parker's fault and he should be fired" narrative though.

Refute it then. When I rode MARTA under Beverly Scott, the trains may not have been frequent, but they were on-time, fast, and didn't break down all the time. Under Keith Parker, the frequencies may be better, but that's about it, the trains are slower, and it's almost a true gamble if they'll show up even close to on-time. What I see in the Parker administration is a lot of bluster. They make the storefront look pretty, but the store itself is falling down. I see the same thing in the topic at-hand, realigned bus routes aren't even necessarily politically popular as someone will lose service, but there isn't enough support from the people who will gain service to make it popular. It's also why we haven't seen significant improvements in the weekend single-tracking, it's not the kind of thing politicians and the powerful folks want to hear. If MARTA suddenly announced improved weekend service, the two biggest groups would be shrugs by the ones who represent the weekday workers (aka: the vast majority of MARTA commuters) and backlash by the anti-transit folks who would decry the waste for "low-traffic days."

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Refute it then. When I rode MARTA under Beverly Scott, the trains may not have been frequent, but they were on-time, fast, and didn't break down all the time. Under Keith Parker, the frequencies may be better, but that's about it, the trains are slower, and it's almost a true gamble if they'll show up even close to on-time. What I see in the Parker administration is a lot of bluster. They make the storefront look pretty, but the store itself is falling down. I see the same thing in the topic at-hand, realigned bus routes aren't even necessarily politically popular as someone will lose service, but there isn't enough support from the people who will gain service to make it popular. It's also why we haven't seen significant improvements in the weekend single-tracking, it's not the kind of thing politicians and the powerful folks want to hear. If MARTA suddenly announced improved weekend service, the two biggest groups would be shrugs by the ones who represent the weekday workers (aka: the vast majority of MARTA commuters) and backlash by the anti-transit folks who would decry the waste for "low-traffic days."

In my experience as a frequent MARTA rider/commuter, service in the past three years (since Parker took over) both in frequency and on-time performance blows 2007-12 (when Scott was GM) out of the water. It also helps that MARTA is fiscally solvent under Parker (when under Scott they were threatening to shut down service on Fridays due to lack of funds).

I can't refute it anymore than than that.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Then you don't ride it. The Red/Gold slow zone just north of the Arts Center tunnel costs 90 seconds per train, or 1.5 minutes. Times 6 trains per hour is 9 minutes, times two directions is 18 minutes, times two lines is 36 minutes for each hour during the 10 minute headways.

Just a few weeks ago, I was listening to the daily fowl-up in the morning (I have a scanner that can receive MARTA's transmissions). It took them 20 minutes to get a disabled train (due to door problems...) at Lindbergh out of the way, all the while playing games with the other trains. Once the train was clear of passengers, they could have run it into the pocket track and waited till the next gap in NB trains to run it into Armour. But did they do that? Oh no, they had to run SB trains reverse through Lindbergh (SB on NB track) which clogged up the NB trains which were being told to hold as far away as East Point! The SB trains had to cross back over at Arts Center because they were moving the disabled train into the pocket track, but then once it was in there, they still had to hold the SB and NB trains while they reconfigured the routes. So instead of just making the two immediately-following SB trains hold short of Lindbergh and hold up a few passengers for the 5 minutes to clear the main, they held up EVERYONE northbound and southbound alike! I listened to just about the entire thing and their lame yakety-sax-esque attempts to do...something. Hrm, maybe MARTA's philosophy is to treat everyone equally: "A few people are going to be late to work, so let's make EVERYONE late to work!"

You sound like an expert at transportation engineering, where did you get your degree and years of experience? Why don't you work for MARTA, where people much smarter and more experience than any of us at running a subway system?