MARTA says it is reconsidering weekend train service cuts after complaints of long waits and crowds during last weekend’s Atlanta Pride celebrations.
What were supposed to be 24-minute waits between trains ended up significantly longer after two power outages knocked out a section of the Red and Gold lines during peak travel time to the Pride Parade on Sunday morning. Later in the day, a separate infrastructure issue delayed more riders near the Lindbergh stop.
The delays meant riders traveling to Pride or the Atlanta Hawks’ open practice found themselves experiencing what regular weekend commuters face frequently. This past weekend’s track work drew the ire of both groups, who took to social media to complain about MARTA’s scheduling decisions.
“You are not ready!” one rider wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “How will you cope during the World Cup??”
Spokesman Payson Schwin said MARTA tried to account for extra Pride traffic by scheduling two extra trains on the Gold line that would have cut the 24-minute waits to 12 minutes during peak parade travel time. But the power outage made those plans moot, he said.
“In retrospect, we should not have scheduled trackway work in the system this past weekend,” Schwin said.
MARTA’s regular schedule calls for trains to run every 20 minutes on weekends, up from 12 minutes on weekdays. But the waits between weekend trains are routinely 24 minutes because of track work, a review of MARTA’s schedule change announcements in 2024 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows. The transit agency has also routinely shortened routes or ended service hours early this year.
MARTA describes any schedule change as “special” but lately, weekend cuts are the norm. To date this year, trains were scheduled for 24-minute frequencies on one or more rail lines at least a third of all weekends. More than two-thirds of all weekends were affected by some kind of service cut.
Schwin said that after last weekend, MARTA plans to reevaluate when it does maintenance and repair work.
“We are actively exploring different scheduling approaches that will increase and improve weekend frequencies and service reliability, while still performing the state of good repair and safety-sensitive maintenance that we must complete,” Schwin said.
Sunday’s ridership was higher than usual, with 50,510 train trips recorded compared to the 2024 average of 43,697. Ridership on Saturday was slightly lower than usual, with 52,422 trips compared to an average of 54,411.
Both days lagged behind 2023′s Pride weekend, which saw 58,768 trips on Oct. 14 and 86,219 trips on Oct. 15. That weekend featured Hawks and Falcons home games in addition to Pride. Crowded, standing-room-only trains were reported that weekend, too.
The power outages exacerbating last weekend’s delays were caused when an emergency button was activated that cut power to the tracks at the West End station. It affected Red and Gold tracks that run from the Garnett Station to Oakland City. Schwin said MARTA is still investigating why the emergency button was triggered.
The power was cut around 9:30 a.m. and wasn’t restored until 11 a.m. ― the same time many Pride attendees were traveling to get to the parade, which started at noon.
Page Bondurant said she waited for a train for at least an hour at Oakland City.
“We waited and we waited and we waited,” she said.
She said riders weren’t given any explanation for the delays.
Eventually, Bondurant decided to spring for an Uber. By the time she arrived, the parade was over.
She took another Uber home and said she’s not sure she’ll rely on MARTA to get to festivals in the future.
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