ATLAirport Guide

Atlanta Airport to Decatur by MARTA: Red or Gold to Five Points, Then the Blue Line

Ride the Red or Gold line to Five Points, change to the Blue Line, get off at Decatur. $2.50 fare, MARTA lists 29 minutes, trains thin out after 7 p.m.

Decatur Square in Decatur, Georgia, seen across the lawn, with its concrete path, tiled pillars and patterned brick paving.
Decatur Square

Decatur is a two-train trip. Ride the Red or Gold line from the airport to Five Points, change to the Blue Line, and get off at Decatur, where the station lets you out at Decatur Square. MARTA’s standard fare is $2.50 and includes up to four free transfers within three hours.

Ride Red or Gold to Five Points and change to the Blue Line

  1. Board any Red or Gold train at MARTA’s Airport Station, inside the Domestic Terminal between the North and South baggage claims. Both lines stop at Five Points.
  2. Get off at Five Points. Discover Atlanta calls it the transfer point between all four rail lines. It says the signs there show each train’s direction and when the next one arrives.
  3. Take a Blue Line train toward Indian Creek, the Blue Line’s end station. Take Blue, not Green. Decatur is a Blue Line station, and the Green Line ends at Edgewood/Candler Park.
  4. Get off at Decatur.

MARTA’s Train Stations & Schedules page lists Five Points at 16 minutes average travel time to Airport and Decatur at 29 minutes. The page doesn’t say whether the 29 counts the change.

What changes after the rush

MARTA’s Train Stations & Schedules page gives the approximate wait between trains, and the rush hours are the short ones.

When Approximate wait between trains
Weekdays, 5 to 6 a.m. 20 minutes
Weekdays, 6 to 9 a.m. 10 minutes
Weekdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. 12 minutes
Weekdays, 3 to 7 p.m. 10 minutes
Weekdays, 7 p.m. and later 20 minutes
Weekends, 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. 20 minutes

The Gold Line timetable shows different gaps. On weekday evenings it shows a Gold train leaving Airport Station every 15 minutes from 7 to 8 p.m., then every 20 minutes until 9 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons it shows a 15-minute gap from 3 to 3:45 p.m. MARTA’s Train Stations & Schedules page says about every 20 minutes all day on weekends.

Late at night, ride the Gold. It leaves the airport after the Red has stopped.

Day Last Red departure from Airport Station Last Gold departure from Airport Station
Weekdays 8:50 p.m. 1:20 a.m.
Saturday and Sunday 1:10 a.m. 1:20 a.m.

The tables above don’t include the Blue Line’s last train. MARTA’s airport page sends riders to its trip planner and the MARTA On the Go app for real-time schedules, so check the Five Points connection there before you count on a late change. The first trains from Airport Station are in the MARTA guide.

Step off at Decatur and walk into the square

Decatur Station has restrooms but no parking. For coffee, Discover Atlanta points to The Reading Room, a coffee shop by day and a wine and cocktail bar after work hours. For a meal, its picks include Brick Store Pub and The Iberian Pig. The DeKalb History Center Museum is there too.

If you’d rather ride in a car

ATL’s taxi page posts flat fares for downtown, Buckhead and Midtown, and it posts no Decatur price. Ask the driver for a fare before you get in. The taxi guide shows where the taxi line forms, and the Uber and Lyft pickup guide walks you from baggage claim to the pickup lot.

Sources