MARTA Doom Day

What the hell? That Kyle dude is frickin nice, and gracious. Asshole. I don't know why I felt the need to pick a fight at midnight, but he ruined that for me. Thanks, Kyle, thanks a lot for making me like you.

In other news, I attended the MARTA board committee meetings where the budget and service cuts were announced. The three biggies are that bus service will be cut by 11.3%, 90 weekday routes. Rail service will be pushed back to 20 minutes during peak hours (up from 10 to 12 minutes, depending on the line) and turn back service on the branches will begin at 7 as opposed to 9. 39 buses will be retired, and 98 rail cars. They will close the ride stores at Lenox and Lindbergh, and the bathrooms, and info booth and call center hours. You can read all about that stuff in the paper, everywhere basically.

At MARTA, 743 positions will be cut, 191 non represented (that means staffers, not operators). This equates to 392 people, as some of these positions are vacant and will just be taken from the books. Most of these will be station agents.

What struck me most about the meetings was Dr. Scott's passion for the organization and its employees. Regarding the cuts, she said, "It's not okay, but it's the condition we've found ourself. It's not an acceptable level of service."

Dr. Scott even broke down into tears when the conversation turn to her staff and how they haven't received pay increases in she started at MARTA in October of 2007. Apparently MARTA either conducted or participated in a national salary survey and found that they aren't competitive. However, the legislation specifically targets MARTA employees to not receive pay increases in the bill that was passed. She called it a "real smack in the face." She said that her employees remain with MARTA on "faith." But she's right. How do you keep staff when you can't pay them for their dedication and effort? I know a couple of employees who work their asses off and live for MARTA, and yet they get nothing but more work in return.

I admire Dr. Scott.

So, after than fun and depressing news, I did have fun at the meeting. Apparently I'm a big deal. Or mini big deal. A board member commented that he liked my blog and planned to comment on it. And a MARTA staffer, let's call him my new Buddy, brought me copies of the presentations, budget surveys, and the route cuts. These weren't given to the common folk who showed up to the meeting. When Two, who was sitting with me at the meeting, went to ask for a copy, he was denied. Someone later sent one over to him, so I couldn't be too smug, but it's fun to think I'm important.

Follow me on Twitter!

I'm headed down to the MARTA board committee meetings, so follow me on twitter to get live updates!

Yea, it's pretty much the dorkiest thing ever.  :)

MARTArocks!

Privatizing MARTA

Meet Kyle Wingfield.

He's needs to take my class on research.  

Kyle writes for the AJC.  He's recently been writing a series on MARTA.  Of course, we took notice.  And of course, we must dissect his every argument.  Starting with this article. 

A lesson on frugality for MARTA from out west

In this special nonsense, Kyle argues for the privatization of MARTA and how it can save MILLIONS of dollars if it were to privatize its bus service.

So why does this make good ole boy Kyle foolish?

You can't privatize MARTA.  Period.  It's a public entity that uses federal funds and therefore can't be privatized.  It's against federal law.

Had someone done his homework, he'd learn the word he's looking for in the case is outsourcing.  MARTA can OUTSOURCE the operation of its bus service, but it can't be made a PRIVATE entity.

Now that we have that notion out of the way, let's take a look at his other points.

Kyle informs us that 11 of the 50 largest bus systems use this "outsourcing" model (that's in quotations because he uses the word privatize, and he's an idiot).  These are cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Honolulu, and San Diego!  Wow!  That's like SO important and SO like, a good argument for MARTA to jump on board too!

Except Phoenix moves 133,000 a day, Las Vegas 167,000, Honolulu comes in at 1,700 and San Diego at 86,000.  MARTA buses move 225,000 passengers a day.  You want to compare a system that moves almost a quarter of a million people a day to one that doesn't even move two thousand.  That hardly seems like a bright idea.

How about you compare MARTA to our peers, Kyle?  We're up there with cities like Boston, San Francisco and Baltimore.  I'm pretty sure those guys aren't outsourced.

Finally, let's take a look at the cost savings gained if we outsourced MARTA bus operations.  Kyle estimates that MARTA would save $22 million a year, up to $43 million!  Holy shit!  Man, I wish I could run my finances like Kyle, then I'd be a billionaire or something!

If MARTA were to outsource their the operation of their buses, the company that would inherit the fun would also inherit the employees and labor contract.  The number one expenditure of MARTA is salaries.  Whatever company might win the bid and the contract, they can't fire those employees or throw out the ATU contract, remember, those feds are some picky sons of a gun and those union members are protected.  So the only cost savings gained would be the salaries of the handful of managers on MARTA's side.  The last time I checked, they weren't being paid millions of dollars.

So Kyle, I do not accept your argument for privatization.  Do your homework next time, buddy.

San Fran - Part San

San is three in Chinese :) sorry for the bad pun.

So what is the one thing that comes to mind when you think of San Fran?  Not Rice-A-Roni, crazy people.  This is a transit blog. 

Cable cars! 

Of course I rode the cable cars.  Who goes to San Fransisco and doesn't ride the cable cars?  On the other hand, I ran the cable cars.

Yup, you're reading the blog of a brakeman for MUNI.  How awesome and ultimate transit nerdish am I?

Like a good foamer in training I hopped on the cable car every chance I could and filmed and photographed and harassed the brakemen.  One brakeman was particularly nice and so we chatted the whole ride from Market to Hyde, talking about where we're from and what cities we liked and even how the transit systems are in those cities.

The next afternoon as I was leaving the cable car museum (blog to follow) I saw that same brakeman walking down to the cable car stop.  So I yelled after him "Hey, Puerto Rico!" and he invited me to hop on the back of the next car with him as he was relieving that brakeman.  When I hopped on he handed me the tickets and taught me which ones were for what and then proceeded to tell me about the bell and that one ring is to stop and two to go.

After a little while of playing conductor and ringing the bell I got cocky and asked if I could pull the brake.  Puerto Rico said I couldn't, that it's hard to pull it.  I bet him I could.

And he let me.

And I actually did it.

It is tough, it takes a lot of force and I actually had to give it two good tugs to pull the brake, but by golly, I have what it takes to be a brakeman on the cable cars!  So if I need a backup plan for a career, I'm going to be the third female brakeman.

After that, they let me stay on the cable car when they turned it.  As soon as I got off that ride I called One so I could totally smear it in his face how cool I am.  I've now done something he never has.

I really am becoming a foamer.

cable car innards

Free Ride Day

Like I mentioned, I just came back from visiting Vermont.  My family thinks I'm crazy.  My aunt Marcia reads my blog and yelled into the phone to ask if I was taking MARTA to the airport, my uncle Jimmy refused to let me take the bus in Burlington to the airport, like no guest of his should be forced to take public transportation despite my pleas that I wanted to take the bus, and my cousin Heather thinks I have a problem following my insistence that I needed to collect bus maps and schedules to bring back to the Bus Nerd and friends and that these pictures really were interesting and important.
But they were important pictures, because while Burlington only has a bus system, it's extensive and run awesomely.  They have two things that we don't and I think MARTA needs to implement them yesterday.

First, the bus stations have a next bus sign.

How frickin handy is that?

The coolest thing about CCTA in Vermont (yea, almost CCT!  Whoo!) is that they're hosting a free ride day at the end of the month.  That's right folks, a day where you can ride the bus for free!

I think it's brilliant.  The bus is scary if you've never ridden before.  Where do you get on?  Where do you get off?  Which bus goes where?  And this is a great awareness opportunity.  The first time I took a bus I was intimidated more than transit as ever made me. 

The beauty of this program is that you have to register beforehand, so that means it's less likely to attract loafers and bums, they're less likely to have internet access.  But if MARTA was to have a registration process where people printed off a free pass for the day, I think it would be a great outreach.  Staff could be posted outside of the stations to help folks navigate the world of buses and with good publicity, I think it could help make MARTA seem more accessible.  I even heard that they could use some federal funds to offer such a program.

MARTA should pay me for these rad ideas.

San Fran - Part Duex

My first morning in San Fransisco I bought a MUNI passport so I could be sure to get my transit fill.  For $20 you can get a three day pass.  The cable car is $5 a pop and the street cars and trolleys are $2, so I figured this was a pretty good deal for someone who thinks it's their mission to ride everything possible. 

San Fransisco has an awesome street car system.  The street cars run along the F line, from Market to the Castro and the wharf, so it's more of a tourist line than practical.  The cool thing about the street car is that San Fran has collected old cars from around the world to run their line, rather than by new ones, so it's a living museum. 

Philadelphia, circa 1938

Kansas City

Cleveland

San Fran 1960s

Italy

There are talks of Atlanta buying old street cars as well for our line, if it ever happens.  Apparently, if you can find them, they're cheaper.  I think it's a wonderful idea and I am for it, give Atlanta some class. 

C-Tran

Sorry for the lull in posts, I went on vacation.  To Vermont, where apparently they still live in the dark ages and Verizon doesn't work. 

However, on the ride to the airport, I notcied that MARTA still announces the airport as your connection point to C-Tran, which, in case you live under a rock, ended service over a month ago.  Furthermore, I took these pictures on the train today:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

MARTA is still advertising C-Tran service on the train!  I feel like this is misleading to people who never watch the news or folks from out of town.  And MARTA, I know you like stickers, cause you put them all over the signs to change them to the Gold line, so how about y'all make some new signs stating that C-Tran is no longer in operation and send out some interns to put them on the trains and buses.  Or I'll do it, whatever.

Streetcars and Light Rail?!?!

The Marietta Daily Journal is reporting that Cobb County could have light rail as early as 2019 along Cobb Parkway, from Cumberland to Town Center.  How suburban, they're going to connect the malls.

This project is estimated to come in at $2 billion, and they *hope* to connect to MARTA at some point.  Really?  Y'all need to vote to join MARTA and this would actually have a point.  You could have a line from downtown to KSU, which makes better sense.

And in other news, there's another round of TIGER grants coming up that MARTA and the city intend to apply for to get some funding for the street car.  Maybe, in light of the new legislation, we'll have a better shot.  O, but the bill only provides funds for 10 years, which is a tad bit shy of the 20 year minimum.

I hope Cobb County isn't intending to apply for those funds as well.  We need a unified region, not a hodge podge of lines that go nowhere, except to malls.

MARTA Monsters!

Yesterday, That's MARTA! and I filmed a couple of etiquette videos, and man, did we have a blast.  I personally think they're both adorable and hilarious.  Other opinions, however, seemed to be mixed.  The Bus Nerd loved them, so did Two, DT seemed a little underwhelmed, and One, well, he wanted to make sure we weren't getting paid for this because he didn't want MARTA to have to explain to MARTOC why they spent money during a tight budget on two girls playing with stuffed animals. 

I'm pretty sure I don't like One.

I feel like this is the kind of crazy stuff that has what it takes to go viral.  It'll spread all over the interwebs like only the best crazy stuff will.  But until I get the edited one back (yea, edited, we're professional!) I made some stills that I'm pretty sure MARTA should use as posters. 

As you can see, we're going with a monster theme.  The monsters are doing the bad things, and then there's a MARTA bear and Marty the MARTA worm to tell us how to behave correctly. 

Yup.  We're gonna be FAMOUS.  MARTA should snatch us up before the Cartoon Network does. 

San Fran - Part One

So I just got back from San Francisco a week ago, and, as the author of this awesome blog (why yes, I do like to toot my own horn), I had to experience all the transit I could.  What kind of budding transit geek would I be if I didn't?  I had some great experiences, so I'm breaking them down into multiple segments, so keep an eye for them.

The system in San Francisco consists of multiple parts, BART and MUNI, cable cars, street cars, rail, and trolleys.  It's the 8th largest system in the nation, just ahead of Atlanta at 9th.  However, they serve 800,000 a day while Atlanta serves nearly half a million, so that's a huge gap.  However, I'm guessing half of that's tourists who ride the cable cars, well, maybe a third.

My first experience with the system was BART (holy crap, it took me three tries to type that out right, cause I kept typing BARTA)  I took BART (two more) from the airport to my hotel downtown, on Powell Street.  I have to say, it wasn't the most awesome transit experience I've ever had.  I've taken rides on MTA, CTA, WMATA, the Tube, etc, but BART (one more) pales in comparison to them all.

For starters, that's the most confusing ticketing machine I've ever used.  It told me to insert a card, I use cash.  There was a $1 option, so I put in a dollar, and it spit quarters out at me.  Apparently that's a change option.  Why do I need change for?  My guess, all the bums.  So I threw the quarters in my purse and tried again.  I was finally able to purchase a round trip ticket for the astounding price of $16.20.  It's only like five stops.  Of course, I had put in $21 (one dollar to activate the machine and a twenty to buy the ticket) so I get another hand full of quarters back.  It gave me plenty of change to give to all the beggars around San Francisco.

MARTA Breeze cards 1, BART (AGAIN!!!!  Ah!) 0.
And MARTA Breeze machines give out dollar coins, so MARTA 2, BART (score! didn't screw up!) 0.

So the train finally arrives and I'm on my way.  Yes!  And EW!

BART (FAIL) has cushioned seats.  You may be thinking, 'O how nice, I bet they're comfortable!' and you might be right.  But I also know what happens on transit.  People spill things, throw up, and pee.  So I'm not a fan of cushioned seats.

MARTA 3, BART (yay!) 0.  (Yay cause I typed it right in one try, not cause they're losing).

After a 30 minute ride, I made it to my stop.  Grabbed my bags and out I go.  My directions were to go to the Hyde Plaza.  Where there signs or station agents to direct me?  Nope.  I never saw one station agent any time I was on BART, so MARTA 4, BART 0.

I wish I would have taken a picture of that horrible machine, but I wasn't thinking that far ahead.  One said they tried a system similar to MARTA's Breeze, but that it failed.  I feel sorry for them.  I had expected to buy a trip pass, like MARTA's day passes, but BART (one more) doesn't offer them.  I was able to pick up a MUNI one.

But here are a couple of pictures.

Cushioned seats! Ew!

This sign actually made my day, how to evacuate the train.  PS - Leave your bike.  Apparently you can take your luggage with you, just not the bike.  MARTA, we need these.

So that's MARTA 4, BART 1.  MARTA, you're looking pretty good so far.  BART, not so much.

And me?  That was 9 typos of BARTA.

Etiquette

Transit Etiquette is a big deal.  We're all sharing this service, so you do not get a whole row of seats for your crap, stand to the right of the escalators, and this is not your house, so no eating, sleeping, or doing your nails for pete's sake!

There's a new site out there called Violation Report where you can publicly shame people for violating basic social etiquette rules, including transit rules.  In fact, they even post a Transit Rules how to.

This afternoon That's MARTA! And I are going to start filming etiquette videos, so look for that to appear soon.  Once I figure that nonsense out.  But until then, check out this etiquette campaign:

Gawker's Subway Etiquette Campaign

What etiquette rules do you see broken that you want addressed? (this means comment, PLEASE?!?!!?) :)

Another word you need to know

There are lots of crazy terminology out there that if you're not a Foamer, you've probably never heard of and have no idea what that means.  Like the word Foamer.

A Foamer is a train geek, think One, the Bus Nerd (see That's Marta!), and the Train Kid.  It's people who foam/salivate at the mouth seeing a train go by.  The type of people who think boys nights are sleepovers in old rail cars.  The people I hang out with way too much and am slowly becoming.

So how did train geeks get to be associated with rabid raccoons?  I know lots of Foamers, and none seem to be into dipping trash into rivers and eating it.

But actually, the origin of the name has to do with a river.  The term Foamer comes from the train geeks who would wade into the Feather River to take pictures of the trains heading down Western Pacific's Feather River Route through the Sierra Nevadas from California to Utah.  Built in 1906, this route is known for it's impressive engineering and breath-taking scenery. 

There was once a thriving timber industry along this route, and the pollutants from the mills was dumped into the rivers, causing foam to build up in the eddies and along the banks.  Train geeks would venture into the river to capture that perfect picture of a locomotive crossing the trestles and would come back covered in foam, hence the moniker.

For further examples of what a Foamer is, I'd recommend checking this out.

Transit Photo Op - Part Two!

And so we continue with the crazy stuff that catches my eye.....

I'm pretty sure God did not tell you to vandalize the MARTA bus.

A bunch of buses down Peachtree, taken from the window of the Candler Building.  There are MARTA GRTA, CCT, and Gwinnett County buses.

On a new MARTA bus, the sign reads: PROG TEXT.  I'm pretty sure thats not what it's supposed to say.

The sign in a Wal-Greens window in San Fran, a light up version of the transit map.

Poster in the National Sierra Club office, Sprawl Attacks!  The reason why we love MARTA!

Fin.

The Weekly Transit Photo Op - Part One

I have a bunch this week, so we're gonna do this in a two parter.

Transit etiquette folks!  This woman is taking up the two seat by the door, in a crowded train, with her kid on her lap and the stroller out in the aisle.  Fold up your strollers, people!

Now this dude is the exact opposite of a seat hog, he brought his own!

Coming back from the airport.  I don't think I would have ever thought to hang my garment bag up like that.  Then again, I don't travel with a garment bag.

My MARTA watch!  Yay for swag!  And harassing One with it :)

Random sign at Midtown.  Not being used, just propped up against the wall.