ATLAirport Guide

ATL Park-Ride Lot C and MARTA's College Park lot: shuttle or train to the terminal

ATL's Park-Ride lot (Lot C) costs $15 a day and is a three-minute shuttle ride from the Domestic curb. MARTA's College Park lot puts you on a train.

The long grey concrete overhang of College Park station over its paved plaza, with a jet climbing through white clouds above it.
College Park MARTA Station entrance plaza

ATL’s Park-Ride lot, which map listings call Lot C, is $15 a day on the airport’s parking page. ATL’s fact sheet puts the shuttle ride at three minutes to the Domestic curbside drop-off area. The College Park lot belongs to MARTA, not the airport. You park beside College Park Station and ride the train one stop to Airport Station.

Park-Ride (Lot C): a shuttle bus to the Domestic curb

Park-Ride serves the Domestic Terminal only. Lot C is an airport-run surface lot about two and a half kilometers out, reached by shuttle, not on foot.

The airport publishes the ride time and the drop-off area for the shuttle. It gives no address, no hours, no shuttle frequency and no pickup point for the return. ATL’s parking page also shows booking cards for the International Park-Ride, International Hourly, ATL Select and the West Deck. None appears for Park-Ride. The page prints one general Reserve Now date form under its rates table and doesn’t say which lots it covers.

Before you leave home, open ATL’s parking page. Its Current Lot Status table shows a status for each lot, Park-Ride included, with one last-update time under the whole table, and the page can list Park-Ride as Temporarily Closed.

Don’t mix this lot up with the International Park-Ride, a separate deck at $30 a day for flights from the International Terminal. ATL’s fact sheet calls that deck’s shuttle free and available 24 hours a day. It makes no such statement for the Domestic Park-Ride.

College Park: park next to the train

MARTA’s parking page names three lots at College Park: the Main Lot, the Long Term Deck and the Overflow Lot. Its table shows each as open or full, and it gives no fee. MARTA’s parking fees page does: parking for under 14 hours is free, and after 14 hours long-term parking is $10.00 at College Park. It says all MARTA lots and decks are open 24 hours and states no maximum stay.

MARTA says that page is updated Monday through Friday, with real-time information from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. A weekend reading may be older than the ones you see on a weekday.

MARTA’s Red and Gold line pages list College Park right before Airport, the last station on both lines. Airport Station sits at the west end of the Domestic Terminal between the north and south baggage claims. The standard MARTA rail fare is $2.50. The MARTA guide has the first and last trains, which matter most if you’re parking at College Park for an early flight or landing late.

Flying from the International Terminal changes the last leg. MARTA ends at the Domestic Terminal, so you finish on the free International Terminal shuttle, which boards right outside baggage claim.

Which one to pick

Pick Park-Ride for a flight from the Domestic Terminal at the airport’s posted daily rate. Pick College Park when MARTA’s fees suit your stay and you’d rather ride a timetabled train.

If you want a train from a lot the airport runs, the ATL West Deck uses the airport’s own SkyTrain, which isn’t MARTA. ATL’s pages disagree on that ride. The parking page says 3 to 5 minutes from level 4 of the deck, and the fact sheet says two. The deck is $30 a day on the parking page. The parking guide sets every lot’s rate side by side.

What to ask before you commit

ATL’s parking contact page lists the parking department’s direct lines. Ask where the Park-Ride shuttle collects, how often it runs and how late, because the published pages don’t say. Ask MARTA’s Parking Command Center about anything the fees page leaves out, such as a stay of several days.

For trouble at an ATL lot, the airport says Courtesy Patrol Officers monitor its parking facilities 24 hours daily. Courtesy Assistance Services give free jump-starts, air inflation and vehicle locates. The emergency call boxes connect to the parking management office and airport police.

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