MARTA is ‘a safe system,’ board chairperson says
MARTA leaders took a defensive stance Thursday in their first public remarks since a string of violent incidents, downplaying the launch of a federal investigation as “expected,” touting agency accomplishments they said had been overshadowed and saying the public has responsibility for safety, too.
“This isn’t MARTA’s system,” interim General Manager and CEO Jonathan Hunt told the transit agency’s Board of Directors. “This is our system. It’s the region’s system.”
While MARTA employees protested outside the meeting over safety concerns of their own, officials insisted MARTA is ready for Monday’s start of the FIFA World Cup games in Atlanta, and riders should feel confident.
“It’s a safe system,” Board Chair Jennifer Ide said. “I hope that as the world visits Atlanta in these next couple of weeks, everybody has a fantastic experience riding our system.”
Thursday was the first board meeting since MARTA came under investigation by the Federal Transit Administration over safety concerns for riders and employees — a result of the fatal stabbing of a 66-year-old woman and then the shooting of a 17-year-old the day after the investigation’s launch.
MARTA has until next week to give both federal officials and state legislators — who have their own questions about safety — information on the agency’s security plans and strategies against fare evasion.
The investigations come as MARTA is ramping up service for the FIFA World Cup, an event for which the agency is under incredible pressure to provide flawless service. Although transit officials have said for months they are “more than ready” for the international games, MARTA now finds itself welcoming visitors with a “black eye,” as Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens described it.
On top of the widespread safety concerns, MARTA will also begin the World Cup with several unfinished capital projects, including the new trains the agency promised riders would be in service. The railcars, built by Swiss manufacturer Stadler, were supposed to go into service June 4 before the debut was canceled because the agency could not verify the fleet was safe in time.
By any measure, it’s been a grueling year for MARTA, albeit one that leaders have said the agency will emerge from stronger and transformed. Hunt has frequently said the short-term pain will lead to long-term gains.
MARTA’s agenda for 2026 was ambitious, with multiple major capital projects all promised before the World Cup: a redesign of its bus network from the ground up, the installation of a completely new fare payment system, the region’s first rapid bus line, a new on-demand vanpool and the new trains.
Several of the projects had already been delayed before the new, pre-World Cup deadlines were promised.
That was all on top of operational changes meant to grow ridership by focusing on cleanliness, safety and reliability.
Board member Jacob Tzegaegbe, who represents Atlanta, asked if the agency, in wanting to look its best for the World Cup, had been “overly ambitious.” The agency should be celebrating accomplishments like the launch of a new app, but instead is facing tough conversations about basic service and safety, he said.
“Instead of it being a win, we’re looking at the glass half empty,” he said.
Hunt and Ide conceded MARTA may have bitten off more than it could chew.
Hunt said that in an ideal world, MARTA would have staggered the major capital projects. But the agency was in a situation where it couldn’t delay without incurring financial penalties, a move that also would have drawn criticism.
“The persistent drumbeat of ‘lack of delivery, MARTA can’t execute’ would have only gotten louder and been more persistent,” Hunt said. “So we pushed forward, and we hit the mark on many, many things.”
But in delivering half-finished projects — the rapid bus line is still incomplete, along with faregate installation and new train delays — MARTA hasn’t beaten the allegations that it can’t execute.
The incomplete installation of faregates throughout the system is maybe the most high-profile delay to anger and frustrate riders who have been left to navigate a maze of new and old, open and closed faregates for months.
The faregates were all opened on March 28 when MARTA began what was supposed to be a roughly one-month transition to the new gates, a process that involves installing new equipment at multiple entrances across the 38 stations and on every bus and van.
The fare-free grace period was extended through the end of May, and it was on the first day that MARTA resumed fare collection that the fatal stabbing occurred on a train approaching the Oakland City Station.
MARTA police Chief Scott Kreher has said the suspect accused of stabbing Margaret Swan did not pay when he entered the system at the Lakewood/Ft. McPherson Station that day. The open faregates meant the man couldn’t have paid, but the issue has become a touch point in the public conversation about her death, and the federal investigation is looking at MARTA’s strategies against fare evasion.
Crime data isn’t available for the months since the faregates have been opened, but fare evasion was rampant before the gate installation project began — and was, in fact, part of the justification for the new gates.
Several more months of open gates are on tap, officials said Thursday. Construction is complete at roughly half of all stations, and the rest are a mix of old, open gates and new, closed gates. Riders must pay, and unless someone travels between two stations with old gates. The fare is captured either on the tap-in or the tap-out of the new gates.
Hunt said MARTA expected federal officials would investigate because that’s what the FTA has done following high-profile violent crimes elsewhere, including Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has threatened a loss of funding to agencies that don’t keep riders safe.
Local officials said they are happy to cooperate, and will provide federal and state officials with answers to all of their questions. MARTA already gave some information on its safety strategies to the U.S. Department of Transportation last October, Hunt said, and they expect to provide more details this go-around.
Hunt and Ide took aim at the FTA’s assertion that MARTA is less safe than other transit agencies. Hunt said the FTA data unfairly compares MARTA to significantly smaller bus-only agencies. It found roughly one serious crime on MARTA for every 1.9 million trips between October 2023 and January, compared to one crime for every 3.5 million trips nationally.
Agencies with rail are a better comparison, Hunt said.
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of those agencies found crime still happens more frequently on MARTA. Among agencies with rail, one crime was reported for every 3.2 million trips during that time period.
Ide said federal and state officials should provide more funding if they are concerned about safety. MARTA relies primarily on local sales taxes, fares and federal support, while state funding is largely earmarked for capital projects.
She also asked state legislators, who have previously pushed back against MARTA’s requests to ban guns on the system, to reconsider that position. More funding for mental health support would also help, she said.
“We clearly need more mental health resources in the state, which takes money,” Ide said. “MARTA can do some of that, but that is not our core mission.”
Hunt announced several new safety measures MARTA plans to implement, including adding officers to trains and hiring off-duty officers to assist with patrols. That’s in addition to immediate moves to extend officers’ hours temporarily.
But board members and MARTA officials said Thursday that riders must also play a role in keeping the agency safe for others. Ide asked riders to report crimes they see using the MARTA app, where they can text or call to speak with MARTA police.
“It’s your tax dollars that they’re wasting when they’re doing this,” she said, talking about riders who have been seen pushing through the new gates and breaking them. Kreher said the agency will charge riders who do that with a felony.
Board member Rod Frierson, who represents DeKalb County, said it’s on everyone to care for the system.
“As we ride the system, we’ve all got to be responsible for being good stewards,” he said. “It’s all our responsibility to take care of it.”
— Data editor Charles Minshew contributed to this report.