MARTA Previews Upcoming Changes To Services
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Hundreds of business and political leaders gathered to hear the State of MARTA address Friday morning.
Alison Guillory / WABE
Mobile ticketing, expanded WiFi, and new train cars. Those are all updates MARTA officials say riders can expect.
Hundreds of business and political leaders gathered to hear the State of MARTA address Friday morning.
The big ticket item? MARTA awarding a contract to replace all of its train cars, which are decades old.
MARTA board chairman Robbie Ashe said the contract will be awarded within the first six months of this year.
“We’ll have the air conditioning and heating that works consistently,” Ashe said. “We’ll have better sound. There’ll be better design so they’re more comfortable for folks and move more people quicker.”
Since it takes time to build new cars, Ashe said it’ll still be a few years before riders will see the new train cars. The project is expected to cost nearly $1 billion.
But he said riders can expect to see Wi-Fi on MARTA’s trains and in tunnels and a phone app to pay for train and bus fares by the end of this year.