MARTA’s board of directors voted 8–2 Thursday to approve the long-delayed NextGen Bus Network redesign — the first top-to-bottom overhaul of the agency’s bus map in roughly 40 years.
The new network goes live August 24.
If you ride MARTA buses in Atlanta, your route is almost certainly changing. Here’s what to know.
What’s getting better
The redesign follows a “high-frequency grid” model that has become standard in peer cities like Houston, Seattle, and Denver. The principle: concentrate service on a smaller number of routes that run every 15 minutes or better, every day, all day.
Under the new plan:
- 23 routes will run every 15 minutes or better every day from 5 a.m. to midnight.
- 47 routes will run every 30 minutes weekdays and every 30–60 minutes on weekends.
- Most major corridors — including the full length of Peachtree Road, Memorial Drive, Cascade Road, and Campbellton Road — get service improvements.
“The trade-off we’re asking riders to accept is: your route might change. But the routes that exist will actually show up when they say they will.”
— MARTA CEO Collie Greenwood, in a board presentation Thursday
What’s getting cut
Not every rider benefits equally. The redesign eliminates 38 of MARTA’s current 110 routes, mostly:
- Low-ridership loops that haven’t carried meaningful ridership since the 1990s
- Duplicative parallel routes along corridors now served by other high-frequency lines
- Weekend-only routes that ran every 90 minutes — frequent enough to be useful, infrequent enough to be ignored
Several routes serving south Fulton, northeast DeKalb, and parts of Clayton County are being consolidated or restructured. MARTA has published a full route-by-route comparison showing the changes.
What to do if your route is affected
MARTA is running a six-week public-information campaign ahead of the August 24 launch:
- In-person open houses at all five rail stations and four major bus terminals through July and August
- Free travel-training sessions for riders whose routes are being eliminated
- A printable “your new route” lookup tool on the MARTA website starting July 1
- A free-fare week from August 17–23 to let riders try out the new network before they pay
If your current route is among the eliminated 38, the most important thing is to figure out your new route before August 24. The MARTA website tool will let you type your address and see what changes.
The bigger picture
The redesign is the largest operational change MARTA has ever attempted. It comes alongside — not coincidentally — a parallel expansion of streetcar service in downtown Atlanta and a long-promised bus-rapid-transit line on Campbellton Road, scheduled to open in 2027.
Whether the redesign succeeds will be measured, ultimately, in ridership. MARTA’s bus ridership is still about 35 percent below pre-pandemic levels. The agency is betting that more reliable, more frequent service will bring some of those riders back.
Elena Vásquez covers Atlanta city hall and transportation for WACN 21. Reach her at evasquez@wacn21.com.
