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An Abbreviated History and Origin of MARTA

MARTA's rail line history goes back to the early 1960's when regional planners and transit experts focused on proposals for rapid transit systems calling for a 66-mile, five-county rail system with feeder bus operation and park-and-ride facilities. In 1965 the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Act creating MARTA was passed by the state legislature (and later approved by the four adjacent counties and the City of Atlanta).

It wasn't until the 1970s that MARTA received grants of more than $800 million from the federal government for planning, design, land acquisition and construction of a rapid rail system. the first MARTA train line, the East-West line began operating on June 30, 1979 between Avondale and Georgia State Station.

Construction soon began on the Airport rapid rail station and other rail expansions. By December 1984 five new stations opened: Lindbergh Center, Lenox, Brookhaven, Oakland City and Lakewood/F. McPherson.

The expansion continued through the early 1990s with the opening of the Bankhead Station in December 1992 and the extension of the East Line past I-285 in June 1993.

The most recent and apparently last construction for any time to come was the opening by December 2000 of the Sandy Springs and North Springs stations on the North Line.

 Click below for the detailed chronology of the MARTA system on the official MARTA website:

1950-1969 | 1970-1979 | 1980-1989 | 1990-1999 | 2000-Present

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