Marta is the mass transport system throughout Metro Atlanta and extends into the surrounding subburbs.

Atlanta is considered to be divided into two parts, inside perimeter and outside perimeter.

The perimeter is the part of Atlanta that is within the route 285 which circles the city. Its radius is 15 to 20 miles, so is not a perfect circle. The subway or Marta extends beyond the perimeter.

Also part of Marta is the bus network. These busses service both inside and outside the perimeter. Some busses extend an additional 10 to 20 miles outside of the perimeter.

The population serviced by Marta is approximately 4 million inside the perimeter with 7 million considered within Metro Atlanta.

I have used Marta on a number of occasions, in particular to go to the Atlanta Braves games at Turner Field. Parking is a nightmare on the Brave`s home games. Taking Marta from one of the near perimeter or outter perimeter points is far easier.

On the days of the Brave`s home games, the subways are full and the connecting busses are full.

The subways of Marta intersect at a point called Five Points Station. Five Points exits to downtown Atlanta and is next to the Atlanta Underground which I enjoy visiting for shopping and dinner. Coke`s museum is next to Five Points.

Parking in Atlanta is problematic at best. On event days, you can expect to pay $25 to $40 for parking. Again, Marta is the preferred way to get around both for work and for events.

For Marta to transform itself from a token based transit system to an RFID Card system is a considerable venture. The population that travels Marta on any given day is very large. Supplying them with both disposible and long term RFID cards is going to be a large move. I am sorry to say I have not saved any of the past tokens. I`ll pick some up next time I travel Marta.

Hope this helps in understanding what this could mean for Tagstar - ExypnoTech - VytaCorp.

Kent