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New year, new card, new price.
MARTA’s silver Breeze Card debuts January 9 at a cost of $2 plus selected fare. The current Breeze Card purchase fee is $1. According to MARTA’s website, the new silver card will be more secure than the blue cards already in use and will be valid for three years. Fraud involving Breeze Cards has been a problem for MARTA since 2013, when computer hackers illegally altered the cards using MARTA’s computer network.
Customers can get free silver cards with card registration at MARTA RideStores each weekday from Jan. 11-29. The existing blue Breeze Cards are being gradually phased out and will no longer be usable after July 9, 2017.
This 2005 photo shows the current MARTA Breeze Card (top) and the Breeze Ticket, which is currently available only to certain groups and special programs. MARTA will gradually phase out the blue Breeze Cards by mid-2017, replacing them with the new silver Card. Breeze Tickets will be available again to all riders at a cost of $1. (Kimberly Smith/AJC staff)
Don’t need a three-year pass? MARTA is bringing back the $1 paper Breeze Tickets for those who aren’t regular riders.
I'm surprised they don't mention the biggest change - the new BREEZE card is co-branded and integrated with GRTA, CCT, and GCT. You will now be able to easily buy fare for any of the transit systems on MARTA's website (in addition to BREEZE machines).
I'm surprised they don't mention the biggest change - the new BREEZE card is co-branded and integrated with GRTA, CCT, and GCT. You will now be able to easily buy fare for any of the transit systems on MARTA's website (in addition to BREEZE machines).
This has been a feature of the Breeze Cards for a long time now. It requires stored cash values though, since the MARTA 'trips' that you can load do not cost the same as a CCT, GCT, or GRTA fare.
I think the ultimate solution for this region is to make all these agencies one thing. Even if they keep the names/branding/identity that exists. Cobb for example apparently has a problem with MARTA, but they basically have MARTA under a different name/logo. So just let that continue, except behind the scenes everything's actually integrated and unified.
I think the ultimate solution for this region is to make all these agencies one thing. Even if they keep the names/branding/identity that exists. Cobb for example apparently has a problem with MARTA, but they basically have MARTA under a different name/logo. So just let that continue, except behind the scenes everything's actually integrated and unified.
The problem, and this exists in many other metro area's and is not unique to us, is that they will always be some separate entities even if under the same branded umbrella.
The cost and financing needs and options will remain incompatible between different technologies, purpose for transit being built, and what the operations are.
A one size fits all tax doesn't so most systems justice and this is usually what leads to different agencies.
The more extreme example is commuter rail, which is wide spread and often more multi-jurisdictional has lower capital investment costs, lower operations costs, but typically carries fewer passengers on a much more expensive per passenger costs.
HRT systems are generally in smaller areas, have much larger impacts in those smaller areas. This often leads to a difference to how things should be funded and where funding should come from that makes it hard for any one-size-fits-all funding solution to really remain fair. They have much higher capital costs, higher subsidy costs, but are often the most efficient operations costs on a per passenger basis.
Now in Cobb's case, they are probably spending far less than giving MARTA a full 1 cent sales tax, and are likely getting the same amount of local routes MARTA would have given them (just look at North Fulton's current service). They probably come off ahead operating their own bus service, pending whatever rail plan would be applied to Cobb if they joined MARTA and what that cost/benefit is. For busing alone, I don't blame Cobb one bit for not buying in a full 1 cent, when they can self-fund.
Well, if Cobb had joined MARTA way back from the start, with just a 1% tax, they'd likely have more or less the same thing DeKalb has now. All the key bus routes, plus they'd have had a heavy rail line coming up from Midtown, to probably the Town Center area, via stops at Cumberland/ Smyrna/ Dobbins/ downtown Marietta. And they might even would have a station or 2 in South Cobb on the Blue or Green line, in the 1990's. Money just went a lot further back then, plus the feds matched a lot more, plus heavy rail was a lot cheaper, and more land and space for a right of way was available as well.
But now I think if they joined, they'd probably get a similar game plan from MARTA as Clayton is getting, except more robust and probably on a faster timeline, since Cobb's penny would be generating a lot more money than Clayton's. So that would mean a 1/2 penny for the bus service (which would be a lot better than CCT if just for the fact that it could ignore county lines, running routes directly into Roswell/Sandy Springs/etc), plus 1/2 penny towards savings/bonding for a high capacity transit option, probably light rail along I-75 corridor.
So yeah, I think the mistake was not joining MARTA in 1971 or whenever it was. (Kinda like Seattle's boneheaded mistake of letting us have their heavy rail system which was paid for 75% by the feds.) But right now, honestly, I don't know what Cobb's best move is, since there's not a heavy rail waiting at their doorstep, and a large chunk of their penny would have to fund rail for a huge swath of NW Atlanta, just to get up there. And commuter rail doesn't even make much sense (even if they could secure the right of way), because there's no obvious MARTA station to connect with like Clayton/South Fulton have with East Point station, and there is no 5pts MMPT, or any kind of passenger train terminal anywhere. So where would the train even go? Only thing they could really do at this point would be a basic LRT or BRT service, that at least would connect the Braves stadium with Arts Center.
Getting back to my point and the Breeze card, I think it's probably fine if MARTA stays only in the 3 counties. What I think needs to happen though is either the entire state, or the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission should tax a penny to fund a unified transit and transportation overlay, that at least tries to logically serve and connect the region. Doesn't really matter what each county wants it to be branded or look like. GDOT needs to be heavily involved, is the main thing, in a pro-transit stance. All the sub-agencies (which would include MARTA and CCT) need to be like divisions of one whole entity.
Managed lanes and express buses are a pretty good starting place to be thinking about. But the problem with not having a dedicated sales tax for transit is that there's just not enough funds to do much. The Xpress bus plan is going to be next to useless. A 2 hour ridiculously slow bus trip in car traffic with 10 stops along the way, consider me not excited.
Gwinnett County is a different story. What I am hoping for there, is a good outcome with the Clayton commuter rail. Because Gwinnett just has a really good layout for 2 commuter rail lines.
Well, if Cobb had joined MARTA way back from the start, with just a 1% tax, they'd likely have more or less the same thing DeKalb has now. All the key bus routes, plus they'd have had a heavy rail line coming up from Midtown, to probably the Town Center area, via stops at Cumberland/ Smyrna/ Dobbins/ downtown Marietta. And they might even would have a station or 2 in South Cobb on the Blue or Green line, in the 1990's. Money just went a lot further back then, plus the feds matched a lot more, plus heavy rail was a lot cheaper, and more land and space for a right of way was available as well.
But now I think if they joined, they'd probably get a similar game plan from MARTA as Clayton is getting, except more robust and probably on a faster timeline, since Cobb's penny would be generating a lot more money than Clayton's. So that would mean a 1/2 penny for the bus service (which would be a lot better than CCT if just for the fact that it could ignore county lines, running routes directly into Roswell/Sandy Springs/etc), plus 1/2 penny towards savings/bonding for a high capacity transit option, probably light rail along I-75 corridor.
So yeah, I think the mistake was not joining MARTA in 1971 or whenever it was. (Kinda like Seattle's boneheaded mistake of letting us have their heavy rail system which was paid for 75% by the feds.) But right now, honestly, I don't know what Cobb's best move is, since there's not a heavy rail waiting at their doorstep, and a large chunk of their penny would have to fund rail for a huge swath of NW Atlanta, just to get up there. And commuter rail doesn't even make much sense (even if they could secure the right of way), because there's no obvious MARTA station to connect with like Clayton/South Fulton have with East Point station, and there is no 5pts MMPT, or any kind of passenger train terminal anywhere. So where would the train even go? Only thing they could really do at this point would be a basic LRT or BRT service, that at least would connect the Braves stadium with Arts Center.
Getting back to my point and the Breeze card, I think it's probably fine if MARTA stays only in the 3 counties. What I think needs to happen though is either the entire state, or the 10-county Atlanta Regional Commission should tax a penny to fund a unified transit and transportation overlay, that at least tries to logically serve and connect the region. Doesn't really matter what each county wants it to be branded or look like. GDOT needs to be heavily involved, is the main thing, in a pro-transit stance. All the sub-agencies (which would include MARTA and CCT) need to be like divisions of one whole entity.
Managed lanes and express buses are a pretty good starting place to be thinking about. But the problem with not having a dedicated sales tax for transit is that there's just not enough funds to do much. The Xpress bus plan is going to be next to useless. A 2 hour ridiculously slow bus trip in car traffic with 10 stops along the way, consider me not excited.
Gwinnett County is a different story. What I am hoping for there, is a good outcome with the Clayton commuter rail. Because Gwinnett just has a really good layout for 2 commuter rail lines.
Doubtful. Money went further back then due to federal spending, which was capped and it was used up and political will to fund further programs at the national level on that financial level completely went away. There is a reason LRT is trending across the country.
Politically back then Cobb was far smaller than Dekalb, which was the prime suburban county of Atlanta back then. Dekalb ended up with lines going through two areas of their county. It was something far less likely to happen with Cobb, not to mention Dekalb had better proximity to start with. I don't think Cobb was ever in the running to get what Dekalb got back then.
few quick points:
- Commuter rail, even for Clayton, eventually needs to go all the way downtown. MMPT would be nice, but rail can work without it. A simple train depot works and doesn't need a large scale MMPT development. A train platform with basic ticket facilities and a breezeway to Five points will work. Who knows, that might be what ends up needing to happen at some point. MMPT is suppose to serve purposes that go far beyond commuter rail and local transit. The cost of it doesn't need to come solely from local transit and in the long-run it's lack of funding can't stop progression of local transit needs.
-The start up for Clayton would be far easier as it is NS second track between Atlanta and Macon. There is more excess capacity and more room to work with NS on helping to pay for improvements to make room for passengers and freight. This is actually a key reason why GDOT needs to be more involved on rail and not simply leave things to MARTA alone. GDOT is in a place to work with the railroad companies and seeking stated and federal funding solutions to benefit passenger and freight rail in ways MARTA isn't. Cobb, on the other hand, has the most congested rail alignments in the southeast. You'd be doing good to get the land for right of way next to their alignments. Commuter rail will inevitably be a more costly proposition going northwest, because of existing conditions.
-Be a bit careful discussing funding. There are lots of tiny assumptions written in many opinions. Cobb makes a boatload more in sales tax revenue. The half a penny to busing is a rather strong assumption. I doubt Cobb spends close to that much money now for busing. CCT currently provides more service for themselves, than MARTA does for other parts of Atlanta in their service area that extend as far from the city center and have similarly populated corridors. That is the point I was trying to make earlier. While I know some want Cobb to join MARTA for either 1) simplification of having one service provider or 2) easiest access to expensive rail projects, there are real financial reasons why Cobb has run better service for themselves at lower costs up to this point that go beyond the typical socially anti-MARTA sentiment some have.
Cobb and Gwinnett, collectively, would produce more in revenue than Fulton and Dekalb, collectively. Many people don't realize that. I find it doubtful that the current agency of MARTA would provide the same level of service the cores of Dekalb and Fulton have and if they did, I don't think that much transit would be effective given the way large parts of the county are developed. In the long-run I'd really like to see the state more involved and we need to have a 20 county area agency with the explicit goal (and different style of taxes as needed across a larger area) targeted at providing service across a wider landscape that doesn't to be the same level of urban service, largely what I think would end up being commuter rail service and a combination of express buses. This is why so many other cities have separate agencies running commuter rail. The what/who/where/how much is needed to pay for it fairly is a different dynamic, than the urban metro and busing system in denser areas that need higher levels of service.
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