For the last couple of weeks, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) has been honoring individuals within the organization through a series of behind-the-scenes videos called “MARTA Heroes.”
Released on MARTA’s website and YouTube channel, beginning April 30, the videos are short interviews of important employees who keep MARTA moving, including operators, station agents and station maintainers.
“MARTA’s frontline employees are the heroes of this organization, operating our trains and buses, keeping our rail stations clean, and protecting our customers,” said Jeffrey Parker, MARTA’s general manager and CEO. “The ‘MARTA Heroes’ series is a way for us to honor their hard work keeping this region moving and celebrate them as valued members of the MARTA family.”
The series is the brainchild of MARTA’s Director of Digital Media Adam Shumaker, who created and developed the series before pitching it to MARTA’s leadership
“I give credit to my leadership team for buying in on this idea,” Shumaker said. “I really wanted to make sure that the voice of MARTA, telling about all of these projects, were the people who are actually doing and implementing.”
A Georgia State University graduate, Shumaker is an Atlanta native who’s lived in Downtown Atlanta near Five Points for 18 years. Prior to working at MARTA, Shumaker worked at CNN for 17 years as a photojournalist and became a contractor in MARTA’s marketing department before obtaining his permanent position last year.
Shumaker said that he started developing the “MARTA Heroes” series last summer after working on another video series called “How Do You MARTA” which focused on customers.
“I pitched the idea for the series and kind of got it going slowly last summer. Then, I presented it to the board of directors in November,” Shumaker said. “At that point, I had two pilots ready to go. And then things happen and next thing you know COVID-19 is here. The first videos that have been released were all shot more recently since COVID started and really focused on the people doing the cleaning.”
The only person in his department, Shumaker is responsible for not only creating the series but also shooting, editing and distributing all of the videos as well.
One of the latest videos features Stephanie, a bus cleaner who has been spraying down the buses with MARTA’s new electrostatic sprayer.
“Cleaning is so important and I love doing what I do as far as cleaning,” Stephanie said. “And it’s just more important now since this pandemic and everybody got to be sanitized and disinfected.”
“When we first started our cleaning and sanitizing the buses, it used to take me around 10-15 minutes, because I had to wipe the poles, wipe the handrails. I had to do a lot of wiping and that took time. But the way we doing it now with these sprayers, we can clean these buses so much faster.”
MARTA received 50 electrostatic sprayers, 30 handheld and 20 backpack sprayers from Delta Air Lines to clean buses, trains and rail stations. The sprayers disperse disinfectant in a fine mist that clings to and sanitizes surfaces without leaving a residue.
“Delta’s willingness to share best practices allowed us to bypass a lengthy procurement process and gain access to this innovative cleaning technology immediately,” Parker said. “We are grateful to our friends at Delta for this state-of-the-art equipment as we work to protect the health of our customers and employees for the duration of the pandemic and beyond.”
MARTA cleans and sanitizes approximately 500 buses every evening and disinfects high touch surfaces on 200 buses throughout the day.
The electrostatic sprayers accelerate this daily cleaning regimen, allowing bus maintenance crews to complete a 5-minute job in under a minute, resulting in more buses being cleaned during their dwell times in rail station bus loops.
“MARTA is an important partner and essential service for our community as thousands of employees and customers regularly utilize its services,” said Mike Medeiros, VP of Global Cleanliness for Delta Air Lines.
“That’s why we’re proud to work with the MARTA team to share what we’ve learned about keeping customers and employees safe during travel, including sanitizing surfaces onboard aircraft before every flight and in common areas using electrostatic spraying.”
In addition to the electrostatic sprayers, MARTA is exploring the use of other cleaning technology such as using UV light, HVAC filters, and robotic cleaning machines.
“We are continuing to find new ways to keep customers safe,” Shumaker said. “MARTA is exploring options as far as using ultraviolet light to clean buses, using new air conditioner filters in our vehicles to filter viruses and installing barriers to protect our bus operators.”
“As we continue to implement new cleaning procedures, we’ll definitely highlight those through the heroes series to show the people who are actually installing these tools to keep everyone safe.”
The “MARTA Heroes” series also produced videos on Xavier, a station maintainer; Beverly, a bus maintenance serviceperson; Roy, a station agent; and Carey, a construction management worker.
A MARTA employee for almost half a century, Carey said that he loves his job in the construction management branch because it allows him to be outdoors.
“I started my career in the transit industry at MARTA 42 years ago. I like the out of doors. I want to thank the Lord for giving me a job doing something that I love,” Carey said.
According to Shumaker, Carey’s video was intended to educate customers on why MARTA does single-tracking, which can sometimes cause an inconvenience.
He also said that he’s working to capture other projects and initiatives that MARTA is developing in real-time, which includes station rehabilitation, rehabbing railcars and prepping new railcars.
“The good news is that it’s a long term series that can rapidly respond to what’s going on this week. We have a rail car life extension program that is taking our oldest railcars and shipping them on a truck to New Jersey to be rebuilt to be more reliable which will tie us over until we can procure new rail cars,” Shumaker said.
At its lowest point during the pandemic, MARTA rail ridership was down by approximately 80 percent and bus ridership down by 40 percent, resulting in reduced service and more opportunities to clean.
As people return to work and recreational activities resume, MARTA anticipates ridership will increase, and having the ability to quickly disinfect vehicles and facilities will be paramount to protecting customers and employees.
