The MARTA station at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport reopened Monday after six weeks of renovations, bringing the rail service from the city directly into the terminal just before the busy Memorial Day weekend.
The Airport station is normally one of the busiest in the rail system, with an estimated 11,000 riders a day.
Ever since the Airport station closed April 8, MARTA riders headed to the airport had to use a bus bridge from the College Park station to Hartsfield-Jackson. To allow time for the transfer, MARTA officials told riders to allow an extra half hour to their trips to the airport.
The station was closed during that period to replace floor tiles and prepare the site for a new canopy structure that will complement the airport’s curbside canopies, with MARTA officials saying the closure would ensure safety and reduce construction time by 17 months.
“We only had minor hiccups,” said MARTA Senior Project Manager Jermaine White. A bus that broke down had to be replaced, for example.
During the closure, brick pavers were replaced with terrazzo floors on the lower level — a smoother surface for rolling suitcases — while larger tile pavers were installed on the upper level, White said. The upper train level “looks so much brighter, so much lighter,” he said.
To be sure, the Airport MARTA station renovation is still a work in progress and is years from being complete. Many areas of the station are still under construction, including elevators, an escalator, a large wall that will become a mural and a new ride store location. New signs and ceiling and lighting replacement are still left to be done.
“It looks like they got a ways to go, but it looks nice so far,” said MARTA rider Leo Tate, who lives in Atlanta, while glancing around the station at a closed off escalator.
Sebi Segun, who travels from Orlando to Atlanta frequently for his work in information technology, said he usually takes MARTA because it’s “much faster” to get to downtown or Buckhead.
During the station closure, Segun took the shuttle multiple times during trips to Atlanta, and said it was “smooth, efficient... I was expecting less but they really did well.”
Still, having the station reopened is “much better for me,” by not having to go outside the terminal to catch a shuttle, he said.
Segun, like some other riders, didn’t notice any improvements to the reopened station. He said he was just focused on moving through the station to “get on the train and just go.”
Ileana Valentine, who lives in Dunwoody, said she takes MARTA from the airport “every time I can,” and caught the train on Monday morning. “I’m glad it reopened today,” she said.
But during the station closure, Valentine instead took an Uber to the airport. “I just would rather get here faster instead of doing the shuttle,” she said.
Jacqueline Gerety, who travels to Atlanta frequently from Charleston, South Carolina, for work, said she thinks MARTA is “the best, compared to sitting in traffic” to get to Alpharetta.
But she said if she had been traveling during the station closure, she wouldn’t bother taking the bus bridge and would instead just take an Uber, since her company pays for it.
White acknowledged there’s “an inherent risk” in losing ridership when a station closes and travelers change their behaviors.
“But I think people will start to come back, and will see the service as being useful again because the train is back,” White said.
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
Rehabilitation work for the $55 million project at the MARTA Airport station has been in progress since June 2022.
The renovation work will continue through 2025, and is aimed for completion in June 2026 in time for the World Cup matches in Atlanta.
And there could be another six-week closure at the end of construction for installation of the canopy structure, according to the transit agency.
The Airport station opened in 1988 and this is the first time it has been renovated.
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