Bookman: Where is the state’s commitment to helping Atlanta’s public transit system succeed?

by Jay Bookman, Georgia Recorder, [This article first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, republished with permission]

June 11, 2026

Maybe MARTA has been a victim of unfortunate timing, with several random, high-profile shootings and stabbings occurring just as thousands of World Cup visitors are scheduled to come to town, setting off a federal investigation into the agency’s security performance.

Maybe.

However, longtime riders of the system can attest to the fact that conditions on MARTA rail have deteriorated significantly. To explain that away as something other than serious bureaucratic failure, you’d also have to ignore other major warning signs of incompetence and neglect. 

You’d have to ignore the decline in service, the decrepit state of MARTA stations, its inability to meet major improvement deadlines, its ongoing fare collection issues and its struggle to attract and retain experienced, effective leadership, among other problems. If that’s not an agency in crisis, it certainly describes an agency in a decline that began back in the Covid years and has never been reversed. If we don’t address it, it will have long-term ramifications for the region’s future.

The easiest, most obvious target for criticism is MARTA itself, and while internal changes are certainly required, the problem is larger than that. MARTA, by name, function and responsibility, is a regional resource, and city and county officials, the business community and civic leadership all bear a degree of blame for allowing the system to decay into its current condition. It just hasn’t gotten the care and attention that a multi-billion-dollar investment requires.

As MARTA’s defenders often point out, and accurately so, it’s the nation’s only heavy-rail transit system that does not receive state funding for operations. That clearly should change. Anybody who comes to the capital city of Georgia, to the capital city of the South, expecting first-class infrastructure is going to go away less than impressed about our state’s commitment to quality.

However, given political realities, if your plan for reviving public confidence in MARTA relies on getting state funding in the immediate future, you don’t have a plan for reviving public support for MARTA. Because realistically, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Republican leaders at the Capitol who would love to take control of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport have no interest whatsoever in getting involved in MARTA. Why? Well, mass transit is not as sexy as air travel. It serves a clientele that legislators in the rest of the state aren’t all that concerned about serving. And frankly, the airport is a successful, well-run operation, while MARTA is not.  They see the system and its failures as a useful political cudgel against big-city liberals, not as a problem they should get involved in solving.

That attitude could change in time, especially with a Democratic governor and a General Assembly more open to mass transit. But even then state leaders would be wary – and for good cause – of investing heavily in MARTA without a renewed regional commitment to better management.

The same is true of proposals to begin building light rail of some kind on the Atlanta Beltline, which I’ve come to see as an absolute necessity. The city has grown significantly, with density increasing, and congestion on surface streets has grown with it. If you don’t think an efficient rail component on the Beltline isn’t necessary today, it certainly will be in 15 or 20 years from now.

Unfortunately, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens has slowly moonwalked away from earlier pledges in support of Beltline rail. He’s a popular mayor, but on many issues, including this one, his leadership style has been to take the course of least resistance, the course that angers the fewest people. And that’s not what the city needs right now.

But as critical as Beltline rail will be, I have no confidence that today’s MARTA is capable of designing, building and operating it. It would be reckless to commit billions of public dollars to an agency already struggling to operate a system that was built decades ago.

Gov. Brian Kemp has committed to supply whatever resources are necessary to ensure public safety on the system for the next few weeks, including National Guard troops if requested, and MARTA and city officials should take him up on that offer.

But over the long term, we’ve allowed what ought to be a prime community asset to become a community embarrassment instead.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.