On Thursday, May 4th, I was on the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) train that filled with smoke during my evening rush hour commute. I ended up having to evacuate the train and take a tunnel catwalk back to the Midtown Station. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the following Saturday that, "MARTA Police and Emergency Management said an arc of electricity from a high voltage rail -- not a fire -- apparently created smoke that filled the train." My re-occurring thoughts include:
- Where there is smoke there is fire. Not sure how that "not-a-fire" explanation works.
- What caused the arc of electricity? MARTA trains are notorious for electrical outages especially during heavy rains.
- As mentioned in a previous posting, if you ride MARTA regularly enough, something like this -- where a train breaks down or an incident with a passenger causes major delays -- happens every other month. (It was the second time in 6 days where I had to evacuate a train.)
My prediction is that once the I-85 bridge is repaired, commuters will return to their car driving ways, especially since gasoline prices remain low and they will know that the MARTA experience often requires passenger patience.
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