MARTA Rails Around Atlanta

Friday, October 9th, 2015
Visiting Atlanta for a day to fulfill a long-time goal of riding the entire MARTA rail system and taking video clips of the trains to share with friends.

First opened in 1979, the original lines were known as the East-West Line, and the North-South Line. Later, a new North Line branch, not part of the original system plan, was built, and the original North Line was more accurately re-named the Northeast Line. Of the branch lines that were planned, only one was built: the Bankhead spur.

The lines have evolved into color coded routes as follows:
--- East-West
Blue: H. E. Holmes-Indian Creek
Green: Bankhead-Candler Park

--- North-South
Gold: Airport-Doraville
Red: Airport-North Springs

Three types of equipment handle service as follows:
--- Model CQ310, original fleet
Built 1979-1981 by Societe Franco-Belge
Rebuilt 2002-2006 by Alstom
#101-200
#501-520 (former single cars made into married pairs by deactivating the cabs on the "B" ends, and joining them with jumper cables prior to rebuild; not sure of their current status post-rebuild)

--- Model CQ311
Built 1984-1987 by Hitachi
Rebuilt 2002-2006 by Alstom
#201-320

--- Model CQ312
Built 2001-2005 by Breda
#601-702 (no #665-666 pair)