Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 34, 2007

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, more commonly called MARTA, is the principal rapid transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area (Georgia), and the ninth largest in the United States. MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a heavy rail rapid transit system consisting of 48 mi of track with 38 train stations. As of 2006, the system has an average weekday ridership of 451,064 passengers. The MARTA acronym is pronounced as a single word, not as individual letters. MARTA is funded and operated by the City of Atlanta, Fulton County and DeKalb County. As a result the MARTA system only operates within the boundaries of Fulton County and DeKalb County, with additional limited bus service to Cobb County. MARTA is the largest United States transit agency not to receive state operational funding. The other three largest counties in the metro Atlanta area, Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton, have refused to join or fund MARTA and as a result all three have independent transit agencies which connect to MARTA. The continued refusal of neighboring counties to participate and the lack of state funding for operation of MARTA has limited the ability for a truly regional transportation system to be formed in Atlanta.