For MARTA, $1.3B FY22 Budget

Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
image description

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA) Board of Directors has adopted a nearly $1.3 billion budget for FY 2022.

This includes $557.1 million in operating funds and $749.2 million for capital programming.

For FY 2022, farebox revenue is projected to be less than half of pre-pandemic levels, while sales tax revenue—making up some $500 million of overall revenues—is projected to grow at 3% from FY 2021 levels, MARTA reported June 10. 

Fares will remain unchanged for the 10th consecutive year. Until farebox revenue recovers—expected in FY 2025—federal relief from the CARES Act and American Rescue Plan will be used for operating expenses, MARTA said.

The operating budget also restores cost-of-living wage increases for non-represented employees and raises for represented workers consistent with the current contract with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 732.

The capital budget has increased for FY 2022, MARTA said, as it starts to accelerate the delivery of several expansion projects, including Bus Rapid Transit in Clayton County (along the Campbellton Corridor) and the Streetcar East extension. MARTA will begin projects at Five Points and Bankhead rail stations and advance plans for a new Operations and Maintenance Facility in Clayton and new bus transit hubs in DeKalb County.

Additionally, the state-of-good-repair capital budget allocates $120 million for rolling stock, including $68 million for new railcars. About $34 million will go toward the ongoing track replacement project and an upgrade of the train control system.

In other developments, MARTA recently asked the public to weigh in on the interior features of its 254 new Stadler railcars that will start arriving in 2023.

Tags: , ,