When the referendum to create MARTA finally appeared on ballots in the city of Atlanta and in Fulton and DeKalb counties in the fall of 1968, MARTA’s proponents touted the system as a transportation cure-all that would ease the metropolitan area’s congestion and establish Atlanta as a “national city.” Despite enjoying wide support in the city’s business community, the measure failed in all three jurisdictions. When he was elected mayor the following year, Allen made rail transit an administrative priority and began the difficult task of obtaining legislative approval, assembling a board of directors, and soliciting architectural and engineering plans.Ĭourtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library. The proposal’s centerpiece was a rail transit system that would solve Atlanta’s impending transportation crisis and distinguish the city from its regional peers. proposed a six-point program for the city’s growth and development. In 1960 Atlanta Chamber of Commerce president Ivan Allen Jr. MARTA is the only major mass transit system in the country that does not receive state support. Fares and a sales tax provide the bulk of the system’s operating revenues. The transit agency was established in 1971 with the passage of an authorizing referendum by voters in Fulton and DeKalb counties and the city of Atlanta.Ī public authority operated under Georgia law, MARTA is governed by a fifteen-member board of directors with representation from Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, and Gwinnett counties and the city of Atlanta. The eighth-largest transit system in the United States, MARTA serves nearly 400,000 passengers a day. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, known as MARTA, provides bus and rapid rail service to the most urbanized portions of the Atlanta metropolitan area.
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