MARTA
Atlanta's transit authority, which carried 4.7 million rail trips during the 2026 World Cup.
MARTA, Atlanta's primary transit operator, carried 4.7 million rail trips during the 2026 World Cup's 35-day window, its board heard on 18 July 2026, while its forecast police budget rose 22% to $58.7 million.
Last refreshed: 28 July 2026
Timeline for MARTA
Mentioned in: Atlanta's rail win, its police bill
2026 FIFA World CupBackground
MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, is Atlanta's primary public transit operator, running rail and bus services across the metropolitan area independent of any single event.
Its core function is scheduled rail and bus service for the metro Atlanta region, a role that continued through, rather than because of, the 2026 World Cup. The tournament gave the authority an unusually clean 35-day window in which to measure both a ridership surge and the policing costs that came with it.
The balance between those two figures, ridership gains against a rising police budget, is now a live question for MARTA's ordinary financial planning rather than a one-off tournament footnote.
MARTA carried record World Cup ridership
MARTA carried 4.7 million rail passenger trips across the 2026 World Cup's 35-day window, 1.7 million of them attributed to visiting fans, peaking at 240,000 riders for the Morocco v Haiti match on 24 June. No major crimes were reported across the tournament.
That ridership win carries a cost: MARTA's board heard its forecast FY2026 police spending has risen 22% to $58.7 million, with sworn officers expanded from 230 to 268, a permanent-looking increase in the authority's own operating budget.