A Child Of Atom

On Atlanta's MARTA train... not as easy to sketch on as an NYC train, and not nearly as easy to navigate. I pride myself on being able to read a train map, you have to to get past the MTA's weekly rerouting and altered schedules and changed lines... but I'll freely admit MARTA stumped me for quite a while. You have to know what direction you are traveling (the lines are marked southbound, westbound, etc.) which is hard for a visitor, and the trains are marked by the final stop on the line, not by any color that I could see, even though the maps are marked with colored lines. When I asked someone what color line went to the airport they just stared and said "Southbound." That was supposed to be all I need to know I guess. At least the last stop on the line I wanted WAS the airport, so when it arrived there was a giant "AIRPORT" on the side. Though I had to run quite a ways down the platform after I realized that even though it looked like it could accomodate an 8 or 10 car train the actual train that arrived only had 4, so it stopped well short of where I had chosen to stand. The ticketing system was odd too, it took me a lot of back and forth to figure out that buying a Breeze ticket was the same thing as just buying a ticket... and what is with the .50 surcharge on a single ride ticket? Where was staff? I never saw anyone in any of the three stations I passed through that looked like they could answer a question. God I'm spoiled by the MTA, and with all the shortcomings they have, that is... baffling.