MARTA board elects new leaders, advances new commuter-rail line

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority's (MARTA) board late last week elected Fulton County representative Freda Hardage as chair and William Floyd as vice chair.

Hardage is director of foundation services for the Alpharetta Medical Campus for Northside Hospital. She was appointed to board by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in 2013 and was elected vice chair in 2016.

Floyd served 13 consecutive terms as mayor of Decatur and was appointed to the board in 2017 by the mayors of DeKalb’s 11 cities, not including Atlanta.

Meanwhile, Clayton County representative Roberta Abdul-Salaam, who has served on the board since 2015, will continue to serve as secretary, while former Chair Robert Ashe now will serve as treasurer. Ashe has been a board member for the past seven years and chairman, the past five.

MARTA's board includes 13 members representing Clayton, DeKalb and Fulton counties and the city of Atlanta, and two ex-officio members from the Georgia Department of Transportation and Georgia Regional Transportation Authority.

Meanwhile, the board also approved plans for a 22-mile commuter-rail line in Clayton County, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The line would stretch from East Point Station to Lovejoy and potentially launch service in 2027.

The board chose commuter rail as the locally preferred alternative for transit line in the county, a key step in the process of obtaining federal funding for the project, the newspaper reported.