MARTA introduces new bus driver training center at Lakewood station

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — MARTA introduced a new operations training center Monday that the agency believes can help qualify drivers faster and keep buses running more smoothly.MARTA held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday afternoon at the Lakewood station, and hopes to start by training 15 new drivers every five weeks at the center.MARTA’s on-time and financial struggles stem partly from a lack of manpower.Delano Robinson, MARTA’s senior bus instructor, said the center is an improvement.“It’s light years better. We’re going to save money. We’re going to save time,” Robinson said. “Currently, we go to Georgia Piedmont, where we use a contractor to do our testing.”Last month, MARTA announced it was $109 million over budget in 2025. A major piece of that was overtime pay due to driver shortages.“This alleviates that pressure, and also allows the operators to pull back on their overtime and have a better work-life balance,” said Paul Lopes, MARTA’s chief operations and planning of