Maybe MARTA has been a victim of unfortunate timing, with several random, high-profile shootings and stabbings occurring just as thousands of World Cup visitors are scheduled to come to town, setting off a federal investigation into the agency's security performance.
However, longtime riders of the system can attest to the fact that conditions on MARTA rail have deteriorated significantly. To explain that away as something other than serious bureaucratic failure, you'd also have to ignore other major warning signs of incompetence and neglect.
You'd have to ignore the decline in service, the decrepit state of MARTA stations, its inability to meet major improvement deadlines, its ongoing fare collection issues, and its struggle to attract and retain experienced, effective leadership.
If that's not an agency in crisis, it certainly describes an agency in a decline that began during COVID and has never been reversed. If we don't address it, it will have long-term ramifications for the region's future.
The easiest, most obvious target for criticism is MARTA itself, and while internal changes are certainly required, the problem is larger than the transit agency alone.