Spotted in the wild: MARTA's sleek, more functional new railcars!

A glimpse of Atlanta’s transit future has arrived—from the mountainous landscapes of Utah, of all places.

Reddit user Paniolo_Man happened upon a scene last week near Stadler US Inc.’s train manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, which he relayed as “the first of MARTA’s new… trains… out stretching its legs for the first time at the factory.”

MARTA officials confirm to Urbanize Atlanta that it’s true: One of its new CQ400 trains was indeed spotted in the wild, albeit one that’s lacking the distinctive graphics with MARTA branding that will make it easier to identify.

It’s the first instance, to our knowledge, of an assembled example of MARTA’s new trains being seen in the flesh.

Like all of the new fleet, the train being tested in Utah is a four-car set with open gangways in between. That means MARTA riders will be able to pass between more than one car at once, making inter-car movement for passengers and security staff easier.

According to MARTA officials, the first new trains will arrive in Atlanta in January, but they’ll remain under wraps until an unveiling event planned later that month.

Testing on the first two vehicles to arrive in Atlanta is expected to take roughly a year. But fear not, ATL transit geeks: MARTA says additional trains will be delivered after January that don’t require such a long testing period.

That means the first new MARTA train is scheduled to go into revenue service in July next year, per the transit agency.

“This model is the first of its kind in the U.S., so thorough testing is critically important—and will take time—to ensure the new trains are safe and up to the highest standards of customer experience for MARTA customers,” a MARTA spokesperson wrote via email today.

Observers may recall that MARTA’s first new railcar body was the subject of an unveiling party in Atlanta before Christmas in 2022, after it had been manufactured in Hungary by Stadler, a veteran train-building company. The next stop was Salt Lake City, where Stadler is building out the fleet to MARTA’s specifications.

According to MARTA, the front exteriors of railcars will have a lighted “smile” in either red, gold, blue, or green that denotes the color of each approaching rail line.

Charging stations, digital maps, computerized service information, and forward and inward-facing seats are also in the works. One goal for MARTA is to provide more room for bikes, strollers, luggage, and people in wheelchairs, officials have said.  

MARTA entered a contract in 2019 to purchase $646 million worth of modernized new railcars from Stadler—funded via MARTA’s capital improvement program—marking the largest procurement deal ever for both the train builder and transit agency.

MARTA launched an initiative in 2021 called “Your Ride, You Decide” that let people vote on four exterior options for the new fleet.

The chosen exterior designs most closely resemble the conceptual scheme called “Minimalist: Option A”—if not even more minimalist than originally envisioned. Both Minimalist options floated by MARTA in 2021 were designed to evoke speed, officials said at the time.

Many of MARTA’s 300 current railcars date to the agency’s 1970s beginnings and are prone to breakdowns, agency leaders have said.

In the gallery above, find a thorough preview of what the revised railcar fleet will look like, beginning next summer, should all go as planned.  

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