MARTA helped keep city commuters moving during the weeks following the March fire and bridge collapse on I-85, but in the 10 or so days since the bridge has been fixed, the transit provider has watched those extra users melt away.
Recently, Insider Advantage reported that all the northern MARTA rail stations saw an increase in April, with some stations seeing usage jump by 66 percent. Most of the evidence of the decrease is anecdotal right now, but MARTA expects to soon have hard data.
Finding a parking place in the morning was the first sign of the increased ridership a couple of months ago. Now, MARTA spokesman Erik Burton says there is plenty of parking, including in the new lots MARTA added. “We still have many of the parking lots still available,” he said. “We have not experienced many full lots during our morning commute.”
As for hard data, Burton said that is coming. “We are still reviewing preliminary data regarding ridership, so we can’t provide a specific percentage of any decrease in the system (for certain),” he said.
Last month, Burton said MARTA was going to make a push to keep every new rider. Now, he says the agency fully expects a percentage of the new riders to use their cars again. “We did anticipate a number of riders, who utilized the system during the bridge collapse period, would return to the roads once repairs were complete,” he said.
MARTA still hopes to retain some riders, and to that end sought feedback from its new customers. “We are in the process of reviewing this data,” he said.
