| MARC | |
|---|---|
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| Info | |
| Locale | Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area |
| Transit type | Regional rail |
| Number of lines | 3 |
| Number of stations | 43 |
| Daily ridership | 32,000[1] |
| Operation | |
| Began operation | 1984 |
| Operator(s) | CSX Transportation (Camden and Brunswick) Amtrak (Penn) (under contract to the Maryland Transit Administration) |
| Technical | |
| System length | 187 mi (301 km) |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 81⁄2 in) (standard gauge) |
MARC (Maryland Area Rail Commuter), prior to 1984 Maryland Rail Commuter Service, is a regional rail system comprising three lines in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. MARC is administered by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), a Maryland Department of Transportation agency, and is operated under contract by CSX Transportation and Amtrak. Like VRE MARC does not operate on weekends. Service is suspended or reduced on select holidays. With some equipment capable of reaching speeds of 125 mph, MARC is considered the fastest commuter railroad in the United States.[2]
Contents |
Train lines
MARC operates 84 weekday trains on three separate lines: the Brunswick Line (19 trains), the Camden Line (18 trains), and the Penn Line (47 trains).
Brunswick Line
See main article: Brunswick Line
The Brunswick Line is the longest line, from Washington, D.C. to Martinsburg, West Virginia over the CSX Metropolitan, Old Main Line, and Cumberland Subdivisions. Stops are:
Camden Line
The Camden Line runs between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland Camden Station over the CSX Capital Subdivision. Service began along this route in 1830, making it the oldest passenger rail line in the U.S. Stops are:
Penn Line
See main article: Penn Line (MARC)
The Penn Line runs between Washington, D.C. and Perryville, Maryland on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor and is the fastest commuter rail line in North America, with trains of bilevel cars and electric locomotives operating at up to 125 mph[2]. It is the busiest line, carrying more passengers than the other two lines combined. All day on weekends and before 6am and after 10pm on weekdays most Amtrak Regional trains accept MARC monthly and weekly tickets at Amtrak/MARC stations, and some Amtrak trains carry MARC ticket holders boarding at Aberdeen during the week. Stops are:
Equipment
- Locomotives
- EMD/ASEA AEM-7
- Bombardier-Alstom HHP-8
- EMD GP40WH-2
- EMD GP39H-2
- MPI MP36PH-3C
- Passenger Cars
As the Penn Line is the only electrified line, the AEM-7 and HHP-8 are restricted to that line. The majority of the Kawasaki cars are operated on the Penn Line, and the Pullman cars are only operated on Brunswick Line trains to Brunswick or Martinsburg due to their restriction to use at low-level platforms only. All trains are operated with a cab car from which the engineer can control the train. The cab car is typically at the head of trains traveling toward Washington and the locomotive is at the head of trains heading away from Washington. In the early 2000s a single unpowered EMD F cab unit, #7100 (ex-Baltimore & Ohio Railroad F7 #4553), occasionally substituted for a cab car.
In spring 2008 MARC placed an order for 26 new MPI MP36PH-3C diesel locomotives, which will replace all 19 of the 70s-era GP40s. They were scheduled to begin arriving in November 2008, and are currently being delivered and tested.[4] Units 10, 11, and 12 have been delivered and were to begin service around May 18, 2009[5], but due to testing and federal safety requirements, service for the new engine has been pushed back to the end of 2009.
To cope with increasing ridership, the MTA announced in August 2008 the acquisition of 13 Kawasaki bi-level passenger cars from VRE, originally scheduled to be placed in service by November 2008. The first units were placed in service in mid-January 2009 on the Brunswick line. The MTA has announced that all 13 cars will be placed in service on the Brunswick Line to replace the aging ex-METRA gallery cars.[6] The $22 million purchase is a 10% increase in fleet size from 122 passenger cars.[6]
Connections to other rail and transportation services
Several stations are shared with or are short distances from other rail and transit services:
- At Union Station passengers can transfer to Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains, Virginia Railway Express commuter trains and the Washington Metro Red Line.
- At Rockville and Silver Spring on the Brunswick Line, passengers can transfer to the Washington Metro Red Line.
- At Greenbelt and College Park on the Camden Line, passengers can transfer to the Washington Metro Green Line.
- At College Park on the Camden Line, passengers can transfer to Shuttle-UM, the bus service serving the area in and around the University of Maryland, College Park, approximately one mile from the MARC station.
- At New Carrollton on the Penn Line, passengers can transfer to the Washington Metro Orange Line, and to Amtrak Regional Service trains.
- At both Camden and Penn Stations, the Baltimore termini of the Camden and Penn Lines, passengers can transfer to the Baltimore Light Rail; at Penn Station, they can transfer to Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains.
- Bowie State Station along the Penn Line is near the Huntington Railroad Museum.
The BWI Rail station is close to Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI): a free shuttle bus operates to the terminal every 10 minutes between 5 AM and 1 AM and every 25 minutes between 1 AM and 5 AM.
Crashes and incidents
On February 16, 1996, during the Friday evening rush hour, an eastbound train headed to Washington Union Station collided with the westbound Amtrak Capitol Limited headed to Chicago via Pittsburgh. The collision occurred at Georgetown Junction on a snow-swept stretch of track just west of Silver Spring, Maryland. The crash left 11 people dead aboard the MARC train. Three died of injuries suffered in the impact, with the rest succumbed to the ensuing smoke and flames; the MARC engineer and two conductors were among the dead.
The NTSB report concluded that the MARC crew apparently forgot the restricting signal aspect of the Kensington color-position signal after making a flag stop at Kensington Station. The engineer of the Capitol Limited also apparently increased speed rather than braking in an attempt to make the crossover. The MARC train was operating in push mode with the cab control car out front. The Amtrak locomotives were in the crossover at the time of the collision; the MARC cab control car collided with the lead Amtrak unit, an F40PH, rupturing its fuel tank and igniting the fire that caused most of the casualties. The second Amtrak unit was a GE Genesis P40DC, a newer unit that has a fuel tank that is shielded in the center of the frame, so a few seconds' difference might have prevented the fire. The official investigation also suggests that the accident might have been prevented if a human-factors analysis had been conducted when modifications to the track signaling system were made in 1985.
On June 29, 2007, around 5:15 p.m., a woman was struck by a train headed to Martinsburg. The incident occurred in the Rockville area, and caused major delays to other trains online, with service resuming about two and a half hours later. The incident was investigated as a suicide.[7]
On February 7, 2008 a train derailed at Union Station after it was hit by an Amtrak switcher locomotive. The train was still unloading passengers at the time of impact, and seven people received minor head and neck injuries. The Amtrak locomotive attempting to couple to the train was reportedly moving too fast.[8] On the same day, a pedestrian was hit in Gaithersburg by an express train headed towards Martinsburg on the Brunswick Line, shutting the line down for two and a half hours.
On March 27, 2009 a train and two Metrobuses were involved in an accident that injured six people. The rear of a Metrobus was on the tracks near Queensbury Road and Rhode Island Avenue in Riverdale when the train struck it at about 4:15 p.m. That bus then hit a nearby Metrobus. Five people on the first bus and one person aboard the train suffered minor injuries; they were taken to a hospital.[9]
Western Maryland
Trains have made special weekend trips to and from Cumberland, Maryland. Past events have included trains for Western Maryland residents to attend sporting events in the Baltimore/Washington Area, such as Orioles or Redskin games, or for Baltimore/Washington residents to attend the Railfest in Cumberland and enjoy the scenic mountains and fall foliage of Western Maryland.
Proposed service expansion
In the 2000s ridership increased significantly, and the system neared capacity for its current configuration. With the area population growing and the BRAC process poised to bring new jobs to Aberdeen Proving Ground and Ft. Meade, both of which are served by nearby stations, the state saw the need to expand service to accommodate growth. In late 2007, MTA Maryland unveiled an ambitious 30-year plan of system improvements. Though funding sources still need to be found, the plan represents the state's goals of increasing capacity and flexibility. Proposed improvements include:
- Acquisition of new equipment.
- Weekend service on the Penn Line.
- Increased mid-day service and reverse-commute service on the Camden and Brunswick Lines.
- Extension of service past Union Station to L'Enfant Plaza and Northern Virginia along tracks used by VRE trains, thus relieving pressure on the Washington Metro.
- More daily trips east of Penn Station, including improved service to the Aberdeen Proving Ground.
- Service beyond Perryville to Newark, Delaware or Wilmington, Delaware, providing a connection to SEPTA's regional rail services similar to the SEPTA/New Jersey Transit connection for Philadelphia/New York City trips (SEPTA does not operate Regional Rail service south of Wilmington on weekday off-peak and Saturdays and beyond Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania on Sundays).
- New or expanded tunnels along the Northeast Corridor in Baltimore.
- New stations in Baltimore, providing direct connections withthe Metro Subway, and service to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bayview Medical Center.
- New service to Southern Maryland along CSX tracks used for coal trains to power plants in Morgantown and Chalk Point.
- Rapid transit-like service through Baltimore.[10]
While many of these proposals would require expensive capital improvement and years or decades to implement, the agency would like to put others into action as quickly as possible, suggesting that, for instance, Penn Line weekend service could have begun as early as 2008. However, budgetary issues have delayed any such expansions. In Spring 2009, to offset such budget shortfalls, ticket sales employees at non-Amtrak stations were replaced with Amtrak "Quick-Trak" touchscreen ticket machines, and some train services have been elminated or scaled back (871, the 1:45pm train on the Brunswick line, for example, now operates only on Fridays). Ticket machines were also added to stations that were not previously staffed, such as Halethorpe. Brunswick, Odenton, Camden and all multi-purpose stations are still staffed.
References
- ^ Public Transit Ridership Report
- ^ a b http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=398 Trains.com MARC article
- ^ a b c d Station was to have been closed because of low ridership per early-2006 MARC plan that was ultimately canceled.
- ^ Title
- ^ [1]
- ^ a b Michael Dresser (2008-08-20). "New cars may ease MARC crowding". The Baltimore Sun. pp. 1B, 6B.
- ^ "Train Death Investigated As Suicide". WRC. June 29, 2007. http://www.nbc4.com/news/13598374/detail.html. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
- ^ "MARC Train Derails at Union Station". WJLA. February 7, 2008. http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0208/494278.html. Retrieved 2008-10-02.
- ^ "Train Strikes Metrobus". Baltimore Sun. June 29, 2007. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/bal-md.briefs274mar27,0,766979.story. Retrieved 2009-03-29.
- ^ Slide 1
External links
- Maryland Transit Administration
- MARC System Map
- MARC Schedule (unofficial)
- MARC Current Train Status Using GPS Technology
- MARC Railfan Site
- MARC Photos
- NTSB publications about 1996 accident
- Complete Story of MARC Accident
- Railfanning.org: MARC Profile
- MARC Commuter Rail profile and photos
- Marc's long term strategic growth plan
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