Riders grade MARTA stops from arty to dingy By STACY SHELTON Staff Writer

May 31, 2001

Are all MARTA stations created equal? Riders don't think so.

Some get high marks for being airy and state-of-the-art, with piped-in classical music that makes you wonder where the cappuccino cart is. Others get a thumbs-down for being dark and dingy, looking like a set on a New York City mob movie.

Mark Davis of Grant Park called the King Memorial station on the East Line a "dreary pile of concrete." He said the overall facility "is filthy, strewn with broken bits of glass that twinkle in the sun and discarded junk-food bags that tumble in the wind."

Compare his review with Brynda Hiller's take on the Decatur and Indian Creek stations, also on the East Line. Hiller, a receptionist who lives in Decatur, said they are "both clean and well-maintained, and I just love the artwork of the Native Indians at Indian Creek."

Davis and Hiller were among more than 50 responses to an unscientific Horizon survey asking readers to rate MARTA's rail stations. Other comments, on safety, convenience and ambience of the stations, were just as widely divergent -- but they are issues riders feel passionately about.

One example is safety: "I would like to see more presence of MARTA police at stations and on the trains. Currently one does not see too many around," said Ed Sporleder of Brookhaven. But Annelle Dunn, who often uses the Lindbergh station, said "I've lived in Atlanta for four years and have never felt unsafe even late at night at any of the downtown stations. MARTA police personnel are always visible around the station and in the trains."

Kip Carr said it's a "pain in the neck" if you have to change directions in stations without a common platform. He said North Avenue station has by far the best train-to-street access, and he liked the Buckhead and Oakland City stations for their tunnels under major thoroughfares.

But if it's true people vote with their feet, or their tokens and fare cards, then the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority is doing something right.

Despite a 25-cent token increase that took effect in January, public transit's fifth-largest heavy rail system in the nation is expected to set a ridership record this year. For the first time since the Olympics came to town, MARTA is expected to break 90 million train trips between July 2000 and July 2001. That would be a stunning increase of more than 10 percent, in part due to the addition of two new stations in the Sandy Springs area.

Ridership has been booming nationwide as well. MARTA officials say the negative impressions of its 38 train stations has to do with the age of the facilities and the amount of traffic that goes through them. MARTA says the stations receive equitable resources.

"I believe we are one of the most effective customer-oriented operations in the transit industry," said MARTA CEO and general manager Nathaniel Ford Sr. "During the last five years, we've emphasized our efforts to enhance customer care, including maintenance of our system, on-time performance and visibility of our police officers."

Ford said the MARTA "is working hard to increase the quality and level of service we provide."

A look at some reader comments:

CLEANLINESS: A work in progress

Not surprisingly, commuters gave Five Points station -- the oldest and busiest -- the worst rap for cleanliness. The system's downtown hub was among the first to open when MARTA trains started running in 1979.

They gave the newest stations, North Springs and Sandy Springs on the North Line, some of the best compliments.

Leon Spivey, MARTA's general foreman for custodial services, said the department evaluates each station annually, then deploys the system's 84 custodians as needed.

"College Park used to be a sleepy little station and we didn't give it as much coverage as we did others," he said. After ridership shot up in recent years, more custodians were sent there.

At any given time, there's never more than 27 custodians working, 11 fewer than the number of stations. MARTA has no plans to add more, Spivey said.

But no matter how many custodians are sent to the busiest stations, the end-of-the-line stations and Five Points, "they're really hard to clean because of the volume of people," Spivey said. "You can clean a platform and 30 minutes later it looks like you haven't cleaned at all."

Much of the trash collecting on the platforms and in the bellies of the stations is contraband. MARTA has a well-publicized rule against food or drinks in its stations or on its trains, but hamburger wrappers and soda cans are evidence that the rule is often ignored.

"We try to enforce that, but people are going to sneak stuff in, Once they're in, they eat and drink and spill stuff," Spivey said.

Every station is supposed to get a heavy cleaning every eight weeks, when the walls and floors are washed, he said. But this winter's cold has knocked the cycle off schedule.

This summer, MARTA plans to try a new floor sealer at a couple of stations. The material is being used in the Philadelphia transit system, which has fewer miles of heavy rail than Atlanta. The permanent sealer keeps grime from sticking to the tile, even bubble gum won't stick, Spivey said. "It'll improve the look and it's easier to clean."

SAFETY: Persistent perceptions

While MARTA's cosmetic appearance got a lot of comments, so did safety. Again, the comments were widely split. Some said they often saw MARTA police officers and never felt threatened while using the trains. Others said they rarely saw officers, and described the ones they did see as unhelpful and even rude.

April Smith, 21, gets on at Five Points every work day to get to her job at Dekor in Buckhead. Standing on the platform holding a romance novel, she said she "feels safe in both" Five Points and Lenox stations. "You don't have to worry about people coming up and bothering you," she said.

Riding between the West Lake and Five Points stations recently, Marracia Mitchell said she feels pretty safe too even though she gets off work at 12:30 a.m. But she'd feel better if she saw more police officers.

"They should be more visible," she said. "If you could see one posted at the entrance, you'd feel a little safer."

If Mitchell got off work earlier, she'd be accompanied back to the West Lake station by a policeman. MARTA police Chief Gene Wilson said since 1994 the goal has been to put a police officer on every train between 3 p.m. and 11. Between 25 and 30 trains run during those hours.

Wilson said in the last 12 years, the police force has been substantially increased and there are now 290 officers with an additional 15 vacancies, he said. A bike patrol unit that started in 1996 makes the 30 officers in it more mobile, and more visible.

Whatever the perceptions about MARTA, Wilson's figures say it's safer than it used to be. In 1990, he said there were 1,300 major crimes such as robbery involving both rail and bus services. Last year, that number was below 800. Of those about 90 to 95 percent occur in and around the station.

The woman who was raped last month after she got off the train at the Edgewood/Candler Park station would not be included in those numbers because the crime happened off MARTA property. But Wilson said MARTA police are helping Atlanta police, and more patrols have been added on the East Line.

AMBIENCE: The good and the bad

Each station has its own unique public artwork, from the Indian figures at Indian Creek, to the colorful tile work at the West Lake station and the murals at the Decatur and North Avenue stations. Construction budgets included up to $50,000 for artwork at each station, MARTA officials said.

Craig Michael Johnson, a 20-year-old Georgia State University philosophy student, complimented the colored skylight at the Lindbergh Center station "that paints the platform in several hues at midday."

Some riders said they appreciated the piped-in classical music. Every station's audio system plays the music, MARTA officials said, but it's easier to hear in some than others. Other riders complained about garbled announcements.

Dan Clarke, 44, of north DeKalb, said announcements at Peachtree Center station "are so loud, yet so garbled, that patrons don't know what has been announced," then worry they've missed something important.

One rider liked Lakewood/Fort McPherson station for its ample parking and easy on-off access to the Downtown Connector and the Lakewood Freeway. But he also liked something MARTA planners probably didn't spend nearly as much time thinking about.

"On my way home, I occasionally stop on the pedestrian bridge that crosses the rail and enjoy watching the freight trains maneuvering in the switching yard," wrote in Michael Dziak, president of a teleworking consulting firm, who lives in Peachtree City.

Eric Gronberg of north DeKalb panned Five Points for several ambient features. "The new advertisements make it look trashier than it ever has," he wrote.

He also had choice words for the vendors who sell T-shirts, umbrellas and other items in the plaza, and the street preachers.

"We have the preachers calling passers-by trash and crack heads (as they may be, but it doesn't have to be yelled at the top of their lungs for all to hear)," he wrote.

"We have fights one day, fights among the congregated masses another, blood trailed into the station on another."

SIGNS: Are they helpful?

The lack of signs and street maps in the stations was mentioned more than once in the unscientific survey. Lee Underwood of Buckhead, 32, said visitors often get off at the Buckhead station and exit on the wrong side of Peachtree Road.

"There are at least a dozen hotels within walking distance of that station, but NOT ONE SIGN pointing the way!" he said.

Several riders commented on the northbound trains, which split into Doraville-bound and North Springs-bound at Lindbergh station. Only signs in the front of the trains indicate their final destination. "If you don't catch a glance of the front of the train ... you have to ask other passengers. It's silly," Underwood said.

BEST FOR LAST Arrival!

Some of the best comments were saved for the Airport station, which has a Delta check-in counter just outside the fare gates. One rider suggested the trains need more storage space for all the luggage-carrying passengers.

Lonnette Alford of Decatur e-mailed her joy of taking the train to the plane. "When I fly out of ATL... it's the southbound all the way! Wow, a tad short of the gate!"