North Springs — Attraction in Sandy Springs

very convenient for heading into downtown atl during busy weekends if you don't want to pay for parking lots or fight the nightmare downtown traffic. i recently attended dragoncon this past labor day weekend and this was my very first time using any marta service despite being a longtime north ga resident. I hadn't expected much since people usually dog on marta but it ended up being an overall great experience. I paid $22 TOTAL for four consecutive days (thurs, fri, sat, & sun) of riding the train and didn't pay anything to park at the deck because i went home every night. that's eons better than $30 a day in some downtown atl lot i'd have to fight to get into. first time riders should be aware there are plenty of unhoused individuals that utilize the marta stations and cars, but it's hard to fault them for being victims of our broken system and they mostly leave riders be. the last nighttime gold train did usually run about 10-15min late when picking us up from peachtree center around 1a.m, and it's also a pain to have to transfer late at night from gold line to red line. i understand that this is done to be more efficient and cut costs since less people are riding at that time, but labor day weekend was a huge surge of people into the city for dragoncon (60,000-70,000 attendees alone and one of the biggest atl events of the year), aflac kickoff game, atl black pride, and for the holiday weekend in general, and marta should adjust accordingly and boost the line schedule or pay their workers better wages so there aren't staffing shortages....

(Daily Rider, red line) Good Trains generally confirm to scheduled times when I ride - early rush hour morning and evening. Mostly clean.

Police are available at need on a mobile app for real time reporting of problems.

They try to communicate issues problems etc. And do a decent job generally. Do get the Marta app.

Bad - on occasion the following. These are mostly exceptions but ride much and you WILL see them. When weather is bad train schedules can go out the window. If it is freezing outside expect to stand on the platform in the wind for a while. Plan accordingly.

Vagrants and panhandlers. Marta can be their bedroom, their bathroom, and/or their place of business.

Sometimes people leave food and trash about instead of carrying it ten feet to a trash can.

At times announcements are Charlie Brown's teacher. Other times the volume can blow your eardrums out.

Still have to leave at the exit you came in at at North Springs. Every now and then that flexibility would be nice and costs nothing.

No train arrival display at North Springs (again, there is an app for this, but the overhead display would still be nice)

WHY would you set one escalator out of service and the other two going up when people are leaving for the day at Peachtree Center time and again year after year?

Relentless repetition of PSAs.

Carding out. What a customer...

I drove one mile from my residence to North Springs Marta station. It takes three minutes and from there I took the train to work. If the elevator worked all was OK, if it doesn't work Marta does nothing for a person in a wheelchair. Upon returning to North Springs if the elevator does not work there is no way off the elevated platform. What I was told when this happened is to take the train back to Dunwoody and take the 87 bus back to North Springs. That is a 45 minute detour to arrive on a bus on the lower platform. The second time this happened I decided I was going to find assistance off the platform down the steps. When I asked for assistance from the Matra police I encountered resistance. A fellow rider, a little tiny woman helped me down the steps as the Marta officer watched. Halfway down the officer offered to help. At the bottom he told me he said no because he knew I didn't know what I was asking. Marta has no clue how to deal with the disabled or what a reasonable accommodation is. If you use a wheelchair avoid North Springs and if you can't have a plan B for when the elevator is...