Coy Dumas Jr. MARTA

Meet the MARTA bus operator who has been driving for 50 years

Each of MARTA’s 1,500-odd bus drivers has a unique badge number. The lower the number, the higher a driver’s seniority; a new recruit might be assigned, say, Badge #1480. That makes Coy Dumas Jr., Badge #1—who just celebrated 50 years behind the wheel—something of a transportation sensation.
2023 Atlanta 500: Government & Infrastructure

2023 Atlanta 500: Government & Infrastructure

These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on civic leaders, government and politics, transportation, and utilities.
MARTA bus

Ask Atlanta: Who trains the MARTA bus drivers?

The next time you watch a MARTA bus driver make a squeaky-tight turn with ease, you can thank Howard Harris, who teaches novices to navigate Atlanta’s labyrinthine streets.
Ask Atlanta: Will we ever get high-speed rail?

Ask Atlanta: Will the city ever get high-speed rail?

In 1992, the Federal Railroad Administration first pitched the idea of five high-speed rail corridors around the country, including an initial Southeast route from Washington, D.C., to North Carolina; later in the decade, the FRA added Atlanta and Savannah to its plans. So: On its 30th anniversary, how are plans progressing? Slowly.
MARTA Reach pilot program

My day using MARTA Reach, aka the local Uber of public transit

Like the vast majority of Atlantans, I don’t live in walking distance to a MARTA train, a useability issue that transit experts refer to as the “first-mile/last-mile problem.” To address that problem, MARTA has piloted a creative solution: an on-demand rideshare system dubbed MARTA Reach. Similar to Uber or Lyft, the service takes passengers on short distances around town, generally from a stop near their house to a MARTA station or bus stop. I decided to test out the system's pilot program to see how it works.
2021 Atlanta 500: Government & Infrastructure

2022 Atlanta 500: Government & Infrastructure

These are Atlanta's 500 most powerful leaders. We spent months consulting experts and sorting through nominations to get a list of the city's most influential people—from artists to chefs to philanthropists to sports coaches and corporate CEOs. In this section, we focus on civic leaders, government and politics, transportation, and utilities.
Jeffrey Parker MARTA CEO dies at 55

MARTA CEO Jeffrey Parker has died at age 55

MARTA announced Saturday morning that its General Manager and CEO Jeffrey Parker has died at age 55.
Peachtree Street Shared Street

In car-obsessed Atlanta, does Peachtree Street’s pedestrian-friendly transformation have legs?

A short stretch of downtown’s Peachtree Street is going on a diet—the kind of diet that slims down the notoriously car-choked corridor from four lanes to just two, freeing up space to provide pedestrians some much-needed breathing room. 
MARTA bus

MARTA has 400 buses that carry roughly 500,000 people every week. The transit agency wants to know how to carry more.

Should MARTA buses come more frequently or should they serve more people? The agency hopes to answer these questions to make a more robust system.
Has Covid killed Atlanta’s transit dream?

Will the pandemic ruin MARTA’s plans for its biggest expansion in decades?

The Covid-19 pandemic has been catastrophic for public-transit agencies across the nation. Even when the pandemic does end, it’s possible that our work and travel patterns will be disrupted permanently. Then, there’s the economic impact of the pandemic and its corresponding effect on tax revenue, a major source of funding for many transit agencies, including MARTA.

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