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Baltimore got the message. A full 80% of the whopping $797 million price tag for the system's initial eight-mile leg was paid for with federal dollars. Yet despite the expense, the spanking new Baltimore Metro is a no-frills affair. Its 58 spartan cars have linoleum floors and plastic seats for easy cleaning. The only obvious nonessential is $600,000 worth of federally subsidized modern art, including one billboard-size neon sculpture, that decorates each of the nine stations.
Cities like Atlanta climbed aboard early on. From 1972 through 1978, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) received a staggering $990.1 million in federal planning and capital assistance for its sleek new subway system. The first seven-mile segment, connecting the affluent suburb of Avondale with downtown, opened in 1979. By next December, approximately 25 miles of the proposed 53-mile system will be operational, and two key destinations—the city's bustling airport in the south and Lenox Square, the region's most successful shopping plaza, in the north—will be only 13 minutes apart. "You couldn't drive that distance in that short a period of time at 2 in the morning," boasts MARTA General Manager Kenneth Gregor. "When we finish building our rail system in the next few years, Atlanta will have the best transportation network of any city in this country."
He may be right. A remarkable 40% of the city's commuters use the smooth-riding, French-built aluminum trains, which are graffiti-free and 99% on time. The 4,500 or so buses that previously clogged downtown Atlanta have been rerouted so that most now feed into subway stations, eliminating in large part the city's morning and evening traffic snarl.
The undisputed monument of the newly constructed transit systems is the Washington, D.C., Metro. Compared with New York City's grimy trains and Dantesque tunnels, the system is immaculate and refreshingly polite. Gently flashing lights herald a train's arrival; soft chimes signal its departure. The entire computer-operated 328-car fleet is carpeted, and seats are padded. Work crews doggedly remove graffiti every night. With their majestic vaulted ceilings, the system's 32 underground stations resemble modernistic cathedrals.
Metro's first 4.6-mile leg opened, appropriately enough, during the nation's Bicentennial year. By last month, when four new Virginia stops were added, the system increased to 47 miles. Daily ridership now is 310,000, up 290,000 since 1975. The system's showcase sheen, however, was largely bought with federal funds, which have underwritten nearly 80% of Metro's $5 billion construction costs thus far. Moreover, Metro's eye-popping operating deficit, the bulk of which must be borne by the area's taxpayers, totaled $61 million in 1983 and is expected to double in three years. That could spell trouble for the tracks. Critics are already pushing for a pruning of the system's planned 101-mile length.