MARTA Offers Up Tasty Beverages For Fall
Decatur Metro | October 1, 2010The Atlanta Business Chronicle reports that today is the day that MARTA “cuts the ribbon…on the first phase of a retail concession initiative aimed at bringing additional income to the cash-strapped transit agency.”
On Twitter, the transit authority announces, “Wow! Vending machines are free on first come first served basis while supply lasts!”
That is if you can find one. The ABC report notes that not all stations will have machines today, and they will be installed over the next several weeks.
Food kiosks to follow!
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I support public transit and I’d like to see MARTA expand and become more successful. But I’m not sure I understand this latest venture. So you can buy beverages and (soon) food in the stations … but you can’t eat or drink on the trains?
I’m pretty sure that’s it. You can eat and drink at the stations now, but still not on the trains.
I take MARTA regularly, but cannot think of a less appetizing place to eat than a MARTA train station. The smell, what I can only describe as a mixture of heavy machinery, body odor and urine, does not make me want to eat something.
MARTA should focus on expanding the train system to fight its looming obscelence due to its failure to reach either (1) where people live, or (2) where people work.
Todd, I can think of LOTS of less appetizing places to eat than a MARTA station. The heavy machinery odor doesn’t bother me, it’s just part of being a train/bus station. I must be odor-impaired when it comes to body odor and urine, because having ridden MARTA since 2006, I have not noticed this smell being more so than the streets outside the stations. I think it may depend on which station(s) you are talking about. In any case, I would love to wait for MARTA with a cup of coffee and a snack, or something cold in the summertime. I carry a bag that
accommodates a cup, so I can stash my drink and snack(s) when the train or bus arrives.
I agree with Todd, plus the stations are at least 30 degrees warmer inside than the outside air temperature. Heavy machinery, body odor, urine, and stale air! Care for a Cheeto?
It’s comforting to know that MARTA is spending its time and resources on vending machines (whilst closing bathrooms). I don’t understand it. Not exactly the type of incentive that a cash-strapped transit system needs to increase its revenues and ridership. More planning went into installing these vending machines than MARTA’s recent route cuts and fare increases. The agency could’ve just saved its money on all of those public meetings, since the residents’ concerns weren’t heard anyway.
Keep up the good work, MARTA!
I find the pairing of installing vending machines while closing bathrooms to be questionable. Have a great big Coca-Cola in the station, but good luck if you have to pee when you’re done!
Hmm. I ride MARTA regularly and don’t find it smelly other than the elevators which I rarely need. But I rarely use it at rowdy times, e.g. late at night on weekends or when there’s a Braves game.
Karass – I don’t find the elevators smelly at all, other than smelling “like an elevator”, an enclosed box surrounded by greasy gears and cables. As for temperatures on the platforms, winter time cold means the extra warmth in the stations below ground (and out of the wind) is greatly appreciated. In the summertime, I don’t notice much difference in external/internal temperatures. At any rate, I appreciate all the ways MARTA serves the public and hope it survives the car-centric folks with respect to planning and funding.
I couldn’t agree more that MARTA is not very smelly at all and is an important community service. Not having mass transit in a major city pretty much takes us back to medieval times. What’s next? Mass sanitation and water service? Are we going to make those pay for themselves or reduce service? Not a pretty picture. Sometimes the community good is good for the community!