is a big place and much bigger than the little city in which I live. Atlanta has a major tram system which is called the MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority ) home, transportation is important so use of the bus and rail system was important.
There was a need for me to go to several places within the city of Atlanta and because I had no transportation my choices were to rent a car or ride the Marta. I decided to ride the Marta.
The first thing done was to get a copy of the rail map. It was easy enough and could be found on itsmarta.com. Reading that map was the beginning of being able to figure out where to go and what to which stops to pay attention.
A call to the Marta office was helpful too. There, information about the bus system and the connections for riding the bus and the Marta could be found.
The Marta legend shows and east, west, north and south line. There were somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 stops on the map. Interest for this trip would take the metro tram from Kensington to Dome stops. It was simple to understand and the beauty of of it all was that there were attendants at every stop to help folks know where to go.
One man helped in the purchasing of tickets and a woman literally took the time to taken passengers to their destination line.
All in all, it was a productive day riding the Atlanta Marta. The biggest drawback was the time element involved. It took some three hours- all total, to travel by bus and Marta. Some of that time was indeed used trying to figure out the system but many of those minutes were basic driving or riding minutes.
The city in which I live has a small skyway monorail. I doubt that it even pays for itself. It probably has about 15 stops and because the downtown area in Jacksonville is not bustling, it probably gets little use.
In my town, I would recommend a car rental but in Atlanta, it worked well to just ride the rails.