MARC Train Service
MARC Train
MARC, prior to 1984 known as 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 with CSX Transportation and the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak). Unlike many other commuter rail services around the country, MARC does not operate on weekends. Service is suspended or reduced on select holidays.
Train lines
MARC operates 87 weekday trains on three separate lines: the Brunswick Line (19 trains), the Camden Line (18 trains), and the Penn Line (50 trains).
Brunswick
The Brunswick Line is MARC's longest line, stretching from Washington, D.C. to Martinsburg, West Virginia. Brunswick Line trains operate over the CSX Metropolitan, Old Main Line, and Cumberland Subdivisions. Stops on the Brunswick Line are:Camden
The Camden Line runs between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland (Camden Station), operating over the CSX Capital Subdivision. It began operation in 1830, making it the oldest passenger rail line in the U.S. Stops on the Camden Line are:
Penn
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 (consisting of bilevel cars and electric locomotives) operating at speeds of up to 125mph. It is the busiest MARC line, carrying more passengers than the other two lines combined. On weekends (all day) and weekdays (before 6am and after 10pm) most Amtrak Regional trains will accept MARC monthly and weekly tickets at Amtrak/MARC stations on the Penn Line; also some Amtrak trains carry all MARC ticket holders boarding at Aberdeen during the week. Stops on the Penn Line are:
Current Equipment
- Locomotives
- Passenger Cars
- Kawasaki Bi-Level
- Pullman 'Gallery' Bi-Level (ex-Metra)
- Nippon Sharyo/Sumitomo Single Level
- Passenger Cab Cars
- Kawasaki Bi-Level
- Nippon Sharyo/Sumitomo Single Level
As the Penn Line is the only electrified MARC 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 Martinsburg. All MARC trains are operated with a cab car, from which the engineer can control the train. The cab car is typically located at the head of trains traveling toward Washington D.C., 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 passenger cab car.
In Spring 2008 MARC placed an order for 26 new MPI MP36PH-3C diesel locomotives, which will replace MARC 70's-era GP40s. The new locomotives are scheduled to begin arriving in November 2008. To cope with increasing ridership, the MTA announced in August 2008 the acquisition of 13 additional Kawasaki bi-level passenger cars from Virginia Railway Express, to be placed in service by November 2008. The $22 million purchase is a ten percent increase of MARC's previous fleet size of 122 passenger cars.
Connections to other rail and transportation services
Several of MARC's stations are shared with or are short distances from other rail and transit services:
- At Union Station, the Washington terminus of all three MARC lines, passengers can transfer to Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains, Virginia Railway Express commuter trains, or to 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, which is located 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 additionally transfer to Amtrak Northeast Corridor trains.
- Bowie State Station along the Penn Line is located near the Huntington Railroad Museum.
The BWI Rail station is close to Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI), though not actually in the terminal itself; a free shuttle bus carries passengers from the station 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 MARC 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 an oncoming MARC 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.
On February 7, 2008, a MARC 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. On the same day, a trespasser 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.
Western Maryland
In the past, the MARC 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 Events 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, MARC 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 MARC stations, the state saw the need to expand MARC 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 MARC capacity and flexibility. Proposed improvements include:
- Acquisition of new rail equipment.
- Weekend service on the Penn Line.
- Increased mid-day service and reverse-commute service on the Camden and Brunswick Lines.
- Extension of MARC service past Union Station to L'Enfant Plaza and Northern Virginia along tracks currently 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 MARC's current northeastern terminus at Perryville to Newark, Delaware, thus providing a connection to SEPTA's regional rail services.
- New or expanded tunnels along the Northeast Corridor in Baltimore.
- New stations in Baltimore, providing direct connections between MARC and the Metro Subway, and service to Johns Hopkins Hospital and Bayview Medical Center.
- New service to Southern Maryland along existing CSX tracks that supply coal trains to power plants in Morgantown and Chalk Point.
- Rapid transit-like service through Baltimore.
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 begin as early as 2008.
References
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
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Thursday October 09, 2008 at 12:18:22 PDT (GMT -0700)
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