How Do I Pay for MARTA?
The Simple Answer
To ride a MARTA train, you need a Breeze Card (or Breeze Mobile app) with a pass or a cash balance on it. To ride the bus, you can use the same Breeze Card or cash (no change). Rides are $2.50 as of October 2024.
To ride the Streetcar, you can use your Breeze Card balance or cash to buy a pass at Streetcar stops. You can also stuff $1 in a box on the Streetcar.
The More Complicated Answer
The easiest way to pay for a trip, especially if you're an infrequent but regular rider, is to just have a cash balance on a Breeze Card or Breeze Mobile app. It costs $2 for a new Breeze Card, which can be purchased from the machines outside the gates of every train station. The physical cards are good for 3 years and can be reloaded with a balance as you go. When you tap your card at the station or the bus stop, the fare is deducted from your balance. The same is true when you buy a Streetcar ticket.
Speaking of tickets, you can also buy a ticket for the train or bus. If you only have cash but need to get on the train, then this is the way to go. You shove your cash into a machine and get a slip of paper to scan.
There are also passes to buy. A pass is all-you-can-ride for one or more days. You can buy passes from one up to 30 days. If you're reading this page, the 30-day pass is probably not for you. 😄
The Details
Passes are for riders who take multiple trips per day in multiple directions. Unless you're doing a tour of the city via transit, just pay your $2.50 for each trip.
We generally have two way to pay for trips with us at all times. The primary source is a Breeze Card that's always with us. If we have issues with that, then we always have the Breeze Mobile app on our phones since no one goes anywhere without a phone these days.
Paper tickets and passes are fine to use, but there's always a chance they'll get damaged or lost.
Some Reading
MARTA Fares
Breeze Card
