The Debut of Maryland's Weekend MARC Commuter Rail Service

In this video, RAIL Magazine Editor Rich Sampson reports on the debut of Maryland's weekend MARC commuter rail service from New Carrollton, Md. Rich was on site as the first southbound MARC train from Baltimore – train #675 – arrived in New Carrollton on its journey to Washington's Union Station.

Maryland is supporting the new weekend trips on the Penn Line – 9 trains on Saturdays and 6 on Sundays, with a handful of those continuing past Baltimore to Martin Airport – through investment approved by the Maryland Legislature earlier this year and signed into law by Governor Martin O'Malley. The same investment stream will also ultimately support two new light-rail systems in Maryland: the Red Line in the Baltimore region and the Purple Line in the suburban Washington region, which will also serve New Carrollton as its eastern terminus.

Maryland residents had been clamoring for weekend MARC service for years. Although Amtrak offers relatively frequent service on the route as part of its Northeast Corridor operations, ticket prices can be expensive for a local commute, one that only serves two stations between Baltimore and Washington (BWI Rail Station and New Carrollton) compared to the nine stops served by the Penn Line.

Additional weekend service on MARC's larger network – the Brunswick and Camden lines – is unlikely given that those routes are owned by CSX Transportation and host plenty of freight traffic on weekend days. The same is true for the Virginia Railway Express' (VRE) Fredericksburg and Manassas lines in neighboring Virginia, although the later of those is instead owned by Norfolk Southern. Other visions of more closely linking the Washington region's two commuter rail networks remain conceptual, at best.

In early 2014, two new additional passenger rail operations are set to make their debuts as well: the first DC Streetcar on H Street in the District of Columbia and the Silver Line Metrorail corridor in Fairfax County, Va. Stay tuned to RAIL Magazine (web, Twitter) for reports on these exciting new options in the new year!