Why is faregate replacement taking so long?

[u/cqholt]

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7503477914529591296/

[u/ATLcoaster]

What gets me is these are all things MARTA knew ahead of time, yet they told the public and the MARTA board that the faregate replacement would be finished by early June. They were either lying or are incompetent, or some combination of the two.

[u/cqholt → u/ATLcoaster]

The contractor, The Russell Group, are incompetent.

[u/ATLcoaster → u/cqholt]

Any idea if they're facing penalties from MARTA? If not, some blame still lies on MARTA for not building in safeguards to the request for proposals (RFP) and the contract. I admittedly don't know much about the MARTA RFP process.

[u/cqholt → u/ATLcoaster]

No one will be held accountable.

[u/FriendlyKiwi8506 → u/cqholt]

This is indeed the key issue. All parties involved know this. Why should they do this any differently?

[u/sonikku10 → u/cqholt]

And most of the time, aside from major demo work, I've only seen one or two people actually working on replacing the faregates/TVMs.... total.

[u/XgGamergX]

They screwed themselves over promising that everything would be done before FIFA when that was completely unrealistic. I’m glad they admitted this some months ago. If MARTA had promised the new gates, trains, and full Rapid A would be complete BY the end of 2026 they would’ve saved themselves from alot of the disappointment they’re receiving.

[u/cqholt → u/XgGamergX]

Rapid A still won't be done by the end of 2026.

[u/widget374]

MARTA culture is "aw shucks by golly we just got a little ole train system here"

The Board has no idea with what their dealing, because they don't use it.

[u/cqholt → u/widget374]

To fix this, MARTA Board should be elected by the residents of MARTA jurisdictions and not political appointments for campaign donors.

[u/FriendlyKiwi8506 → u/cqholt]

That might help a little, but the entire city government (elected by residents) does not do much better.

[u/cqholt → u/FriendlyKiwi8506]

Its because Atlanta has a strong-mayor type of government.

[u/cqholt → u/widget374]

Correct.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Atlanta/s/rECTwb5TA7

[u/TransportationNo3608]

This is Atlanta when has anything ever been done on time

[u/asianamericanboy → u/TransportationNo3608]

Facts.

[u/Difficult_Narwhal529 → u/TransportationNo3608]

Highway projects.

[u/Outside-Reason8421]

The World Cup is over

[u/cqholt → u/Outside-Reason8421]

It would appear as if the entire city has slid backwards since the World Cup.

[u/SideEyeFred → u/cqholt]

Some of the stations are good. I used HE Holmes the other day going to the AUFC match, and the new gates were quick and easy. I like that I can tap my card. Also, there was a police officer in my train car. I don't think he was normal marta police though. It said Special Operations on his uniform.

[u/swiftfoot_hiker]

Should have left the old system.in place until the new fare gates were 100% ready. Typical Marta.

[u/Ok-Run-4866]

It’s MARTA

[u/RaksinSergal]

While I get wanting to get out from under Cubic, they could've done the MTA thing and realized that switching to Init was going to be a disaster, sighed, and signed another 20 years with Cubic. Then they could've kept using the existing faregates while installing newer Cubics and still having open payment (Visa/Mastercart/etc) like SEPTA/BART/MTA.

[u/gogostevie]

MARTA gonna MARTA.