If MARTA looked like this, would you ride it? Page 1 of 3
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If MARTA looked like this, would you ride it?
Adman pitches a whole new MARTA 'concept'
By PAUL DONSKY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/18/06
How's this for a smarter MARTA?
Leather couches in a furniture-store sponsored train car. Free rides on MLK Jr. Day — "Free at
last," get it? Bicycle carts delivering "traffic jam" and toast to drivers stuck in gridlock, courtesy of
MARTA. Pictures of reindeer plastered on trains during the Christmas season.
These strange but true ideas are straight from the mind of Atlanta pitchman extraordinaire Joey
Reiman and his team at BrightHouse.
MARTA hired Reiman's company to help the transit system overhaul its public image.
BrightHouse's report, issued last week, challenges MARTA's leaders to totally rethink what they
do.
MARTA's mission must no longer be limited to simply getting people from point A to point B,
Reiman told the MARTA board of directors last week.
"Create a transit system that will elevate people, not just transport them," he said. "Move them
emotionally."
And "itsmarta," the transit system's longtime and oft-mocked slogan and logo, should be dumped,
Reiman urged. He proposed a fresh, lively alternative that plays on the middle three letters of the
system's name: MARTA — the "ART" of travel.
The ideas may sound a bit off the wall, but Reiman is widely respected in his field. He's worked for
many of Atlanta's biggest companies, including Coca-Cola, Delta Air Lines and Home Depot.
Reiman helped Coke develop its Olympic City theme park for the 1996 Atlanta summer games and
the company's Sky Field attraction at Turner Field. BrightHouse came up with a "unifying theme"
for the Atlanta Police Department two years ago — "Answer the Call"— and just completed work
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with Emory University.
BrightHouse commands top-dollar fees but gave MARTA a break, charging $150,000 for a job that
would have cost $750,000, Reiman said.
Reiman shared his ideas at a fevered pitch during a fast-moving presentation at the transit system's
Buckhead headquarters titled "A whole new train of thought."
"Why don't we do these things?" Reiman said several times.
It's not clear how many ideas will ever get off the drawing board. Even those deemed feasible could
prove expensive to introduce, a problem for a transit system that slashed bus and rail service in
recent years to balance its budget.
MARTA's interim general manager, Richard McCrillis, said Reiman's ideas "are great from a
conceptual point of view." But, he added, "We've got to get our system up to standard first — an
acceptable level of cleanliness and on-time performance and stations being attractive enough."
Reiman said his presentation was only meant to provide MARTA a glimpse of what it could
become in the future.
"MARTA has a lot on their plate," Reiman said in an interview. "Their primary goal is
to get the system 100 percent" in shape.
MARTA board chairman Ed Wall said he's already bought Reiman's main message.
"MARTA is all about quality of life issues, not just a transportation vehicle," he said. MARTA
should "make the stations friendly, let people be able to buy a cup of coffee or a magazine, and not
walk into a station that looks as if it was built by Joseph Stalin."
Wall said he hoped to discuss Reiman's report at a board retreat later this year.
MARTA already has embraced one BrightHouse idea that won't cost much to introduce: hip, eye-
catching advertisements in buses, trains and rail stations touting the transit system's achievements.
One of BrightHouse's mock ads provides information about the system's use of clean-burning fuel
and the tagline: "The two best reasons to ride MARTA? Your child's lungs."
MARTA has developed a similar ad that soon will be installed on old trains that have been
renovated. The tagline: "Ever wonder what it would be like to ride in a new rail car? Now you
know."
MARTA rider Nambi Kamanga said the system needs to improve its service before spending
money on any of BrightHouse's ideas.
"The trains — they need to be on time and they need to be cleaner," said Kamanga, 26.
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Board member Pat Upshaw-Monteith said she had mixed feelings about Reiman's proposals.
"I like his ideas and his vision, and I really agree that we need to take MARTA to the next level, but
some of the things he's recommending are not very realistic," said Upshaw-Monteith, executive
director of Leadership Atlanta. "When you look at our clientele, I just don't think our ridership
would be willing to pay $3 for a cup of coffee."
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