ATLANTA — Love it or hate it, MARTA is a part of the Atlanta experience and one of the most hotly contested topics around town is whether or not it would be better expanded, with trains branching out to a larger swath of the metro.
Well, on Wednesday, an Instagram post showing what looked like a hypothetical map got some attention.
At first glance, it appears to be an official outline for rail expansion, but is that true? We went to MARTA for the answers.
The Question
Is the MARTA expansion map featured on @gafollowersofficial actually real?
The Sources
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (or MARTA)
The Answer
No, according to our friends at MARTA, that expanded map on Instagram is a total fake.
What We Found
As great as it would be to have an expanded rail line like the one pictured in the photo, the reality is a little more complicated.
MARTA officials notified us that the type of rail expansion pictured in the post would cost roughly $100 billion, similar to the "number that was included in the 2019 State of MARTA “Moonshot” speech."
Furthermore, "MARTA’s annual budget is only about $1.5 billion. GDOT’s annual budget for transportation repairs, upgrades, and expansion of roads is $3.65 billion. Last year, the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program awarded $2.2 billion for transit expansion projects across the entire U.S."
MARTA noted that these kinds of heavy rail lines are not part of its current expansion plans, though the transit authority is eyeing a streetcar extension to the Beltline, as well as additional bus lines.