As General Manager and CEO Collie Greenwood waved from the cockpit, train car number 1004 made its inaugural ride into MARTA’s Lindbergh Station to a noisy backdrop of train honks, cheers and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” blasting from speakers.
Onlookers crowded the platform with phones lifted to capture the exact moment when the transit agency’s new CQ400 railcars came into sight. It’s the first design change to MARTA’s trains since they began rolling almost half a century ago.
“Your chariot has arrived at last,” Greenwood told those gathered before encouraging them to explore the aluminum-frame train still sporting that “new car” smell.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
The flashy demonstration — average riders must wait until the end of the year before the new trains are actually in service — was the main attraction at Thursday’s State of MARTA address, which was hosted in partnership with the Council for Quality Growth.
Greenwood painted a rosy picture of a transit agency that has struggled with service reliability, low ridership, and safety, focusing instead on MARTA’s wins: triple-A bond ratings, station renovations and an investment in a new train control system.
“The state of MARTA is strong,” he said.
All of MARTA’s existing trains will eventually be replaced by 224 new railcars built by Stadler, a Swiss rail construction company with its U.S. headquarters in Utah. The train cars were built in Hungary and work is being completed at Stadler’s Salt Lake City plant.
The new trains are four cars long, all connected by an open gangway that lets riders walk from one end to the other. It’s a design popular in Europe and Asia but newer to the U.S., where it was first introduced by New York City’s transit system last year.
The front of the cars features a lighted “smile” that will correspond with the rail line being served, either Red, Gold, Green or Blue. The overall look is like a scene from a sci-fi movie, and display boards on the trains proclaimed “The Future is Here.”
Inside, there are 100 digital display screens with route information. Cameras and noise monitors will alert operators and law enforcement to disruptions on the train that might require intervention.
The trains will be outfitted with a new train control system designed by Stadler and approved by MARTA’s Board of Directors in December for $500 million. The railcars, purchased in 2019, cost $700 million total, MARTA spokeswoman Stephany Fisher said.
The new trains require less electricity to operate and are designed with the latest safety standards in the event of a crash, said Martin Ridder, Stadler’s U.S. CEO. They also feature redundant systems to minimize service disruptions.
Ridder said there’s no other train car like it in North America.
“It’s got that feel and look that makes you want to take the train,” Ridder told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
MARTA Board Chairperson Jennifer Ide said she thinks the new train cars are “transformational” and will give metro Atlantans a visual reminder of the changes happening at MARTA and reassure them that progress is being made.
“It’s exciting to see all of these initiatives that have been worked on behind the scenes for a number of years come together and come to life,” Ide said in an interview.
Ide said she thinks the new trains will help draw in riders, along with efforts to allow tap-to-pay instead of fare cards and WiFi throughout the system. But she said MARTA also has to address reliability so that the system is competitive with other options.
Ide said she’d planned to take a bus to MARTA’s headquarters a day earlier but after waiting, she learned the route was canceled. On Thursday, she had her husband drop her off because it would have taken her nearly an hour by transit.
“Even I’m not going to choose to ride 54 minutes when it’s a seven-minute drive,” Ide said. “We’ve got to figure out other ways.”
Greenwood said in an interview that the new cars demonstrate how much MARTA cares about the quality of the ride. He said it was exhilarating to show off the new trains.
“This train is such a visceral representation of what we mean to provide to the city of Atlanta and to metropolitan Atlanta that I think it’s going to do wonders for ridership,” Greenwood said. “I think people are going to start there and then start to figure out, well, what else can MARTA do for us if they’re putting this much care and concern and technology into the rail system?”
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez
MARTA has struggled more than almost every other major transit agency in the country to recover bus and train ridership that fell during the pandemic, according to a recent Federal Transit Administration report. Ridership in 15 cities has surpassed prepandemic levels but not in Atlanta, where recovery is below average and ranked second-to-last compared to other metros.
Greenwood said it’s a challenge because of high work-from-home rates in Atlanta.
While ridership hasn’t fully returned, Greenwood said the annual increases are a hopeful sign of progress. He said he hoped new residents moving to the metro will opt for transit even if former riders have developed new habits.
“Bus and rail are going to take some time,” he said.
The upcoming bus network redesign should also help with ridership, Greenwood said.
MARTA is in the process of getting feedback on the first major overall of the bus network in the transit agency’s history. The plans call for more frequent routes in some areas and will remove routes in others in exchange for on-demand rideshares. The total number of routes would drop from 113 to 79.
The new bus service changes are expected to go into effect by the end of 2025.
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