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In the past couple years MARTA moved from tokens to what is called a Breeze Card. The Breeze Card electronically stores cash value and can be reused and refilled as needed. You must have a Breeze Card to ride the trains, although you use a Breeze Card or cash to ride the buses.
Here are some of the common confusions and clarifications about the Breeze Card:
- There are actually two types of cards, a paper ticket that costs $0.50 and must be purchased with a one-way fare ($2). It is not reloadable, so plan to purchase the roundtrip fare if you plan to make a return trip or you can purchase a one-day pass for unlimited use ($8). There is also a plastic card that is $1 that can be reloaded at any time with any amount of rides (see MARTA's fare table for more information).
- Only the Breeze Card can have a balance protection by calling to activiate it at 404-848-5000. If you lose your paper ticket, there is no refund and the ticket itself expires after 90 days.
- So what do you do with it? There are blue circles on the fare gates. Tap the circle to the right of you to enter a rail station or board a bus. Make sure you tap the blue circle when you exit as well. The tapping will open the fare gate and allow you a transfer to a bus. The transfer is automatically in place when you exit a bus to transfer to a train.
- A Breeze Card or Ticket will not be demagnitized by being next to your credit card, but it may make it difficult when tapping if either is next to another smart card or credit card. Make sure to separate your card/ticket from another card to avoid this issue. Also, sometimes the paper tickets stop working after getting wet, so be cautious around rain and liquids.
- If you are handicapped or with children who qualify for a free fare, enter through the handicap gate. One great trick is that you can exit a rail station at a handicap gate without having to tap your card. Merely stand in front of the gate or wave your hand in front of the red sensor and the gate will open. This method is useful if your hands or full or it is too inconvenient to retrieve your card. But remember, you won't get a transfer if you don't tap.
- If you forget how much is left on your card, you can go to any of the Breeze vending machines and use the check balance option. And if you have old MARTA tokens, you can transfer them to your card as well up until September.
- So are you being tracked? Apparently there is some data collected to track ridership to better plan routes and schedules, though no individual rider data is tracked.
For more information on riding MARTA: See Using Google Maps for MARTA Directions and 10 Popular Atlanta Tourist Attractions and How to Get There on MARTA
Comments
I love these things. I have the plastic card with me all the time and make sure to keep a few rides on it - makes getting downtown and to and from the Dome easy as pie. I can't believe I used to jingle back and forth to class as Georgia State with a pocket full of coins.
I have some questions after using MARTA for the first time.
Does tapping your Breeze card to open the gates charge you for a trip or only when you tap the card reader on the bus? As I understand it, you tap your card to open the gate to get to a bus, then also tap the card when boarding the bus (if you board at a MARTA station and not a street-side bus stop.
Or when you enter a station to take the train, are you getting charged for a trip when you tap the blue circle card reader to open the gate to get to the train? How does it work when you start on a train and then transfer to a bus - you would tap your card to open the gate to get to a train, then on leaving the train you would tap your card again to get to the buses. I don't understand when the transfer is recorded and when the trip is getting charged when you start on a train and transfer to a bus rather than vice versa.
Thanks for any further information you can provide. I hope to use the heck out of MARTA to immerse myself in what Atlanta has to offer.
Hi JP! Sorry, just now seeing your comment...didn't have any notifications it was there! So:
Tapping your Breeze Card for the first time, no matter where you tap, charges the card for a trip. But, you get one free transfer. So if you board a bus, you get a free transfer to the train. If you ride the train first and tap your card to exit the station, that adds the free transfer to the bus. Hope that helps!
If I need to get from a bus stop to the train station... how do I get a breeze card? Isn't that only available to purchase from the train station? Would I just pay $2 to get on the bus and $2 for the train?
Correct. You have to pay twice: pay to get on the bus with cash, then pay for a Breeze Card with fare at the train station. You can order and add fare to a Breeze Card online, but I don't know how long that takes to arrive in the mail. https://is.breezecard.com/marta/
I take the train from North Springs to the Buckhead station. I don't transfer to a bus as my job is two blocks away from the Buckhead station. When I tap my breezecard to exit at Buckhead station or exit at North Springs to get to the parking deck ,am I being charged for the exits? I tried to check my Breezecard account and it did not show how many trips were left on my account. I purchased a 20 trip pass for $42.50 and I'm confused on when the transfer charges kick in. Am I getting charge for exiting the stations?
You don't get charged for exiting. When you tap your card to exit, all it is doing is adding a free transfer and also provides some data to MARTA on which stations have the most traffic. When you first tap to enter MARTA and ride the system, you are just charged $2.50 (for adults). Hope that helps!
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