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MARTA explains cause of chaos after National Championship

Video footage from MARTA’s Five Points Station shows hundreds of passengers waiting for trains that weren’t going anywhere after the college football national championship last month.

ATLANTA — Inadequate staffing, poor communication and ineffective crowd control led to chaos at MARTA’s Five Points Station after the College Football Playoff National Championship Game last month, the agency’s top executives said Thursday.

Far fewer employees showed up to work than expected, the executives told the MARTA Board.

The staff that did show up wasn’t enough to stop crowds from pressing up against trains and triggering doors to open automatically, which prevented trains from leaving the station.

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Poor communication between different stations prevented MARTA from stemming the tide of passengers that kept flowing into Five Points, even though some trains were stuck there.

Chief Operating Officer Rich Krisak told board members the agency already is taking steps to prevent a repeat when Atlanta hosts the Super Bowl next February.

This article was written by David Wickert, The Atlanta Journal Constitution.