MARC Question

How come MARC does not offer weekend service? I could see that as an okay on the Penn Line since it is served by Amtrak, but what about the Brunswick and Camden Lines?

The only semi-logical reason I can come up with off the top of my head is low demand, unless there is something else, maybe issues with a lease on the tracks (if MTA *Maryland Transportation Authority*) does not own them, any of these of coures are purely speculative.

Well it's just like anyplace else that doesn't offer weekend service, low demand. People are more likely to take their cars to DC on the weekends, as its not rush hour. So, in my mind its a smart oerating move as ridership would probably be pretty low.

battalion51 said:

Well it's just like anyplace else that doesn't offer weekend service, low demand. People are more likely to take their cars to DC on the weekends, as its not rush hour. So, in my mind its a smart oerating move as ridership would probably be pretty low.

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I'm not so sure about that low demand idea. I think that it has more to do with lack of money, and perhaps CSX being unwilling to allow trains to run on the weekend.

I seem to recall reading somewhere that VRE would like to offer Saturday service, but they can't get CSX to agree to it. In fact VRE is having a hard time getting CSX to allow them to run more weekday trains.

We can fill up our weekend trains here in NYC and we have far more lines than does MARC. I should think that they could find enough riders for weekend service, as long as they don't try to run a train every 15 minutes.

I wish NJT would operate MidTOWN DIRECT every 30 Minutes off peak like they do on the NEC. But at least there's weekend service.

I'm hoping that as more Double Track gets cut in down here Tri-Rail will run weekday trains every 20 minutes, and every 30 on weekends. One of the big factors down here is that Tri-Rail owns the tracks, and indirectly dispatches them (Tri-Rail will dispatch everything after all the track is in, currently the CSX BA dispatcher runs the SoFla corridor).

At the very least MARC should try to run Baseball Specials from DC to the Orioles games at Camden Yards, I'm sure those would do fairly decent business.

tp49 said:

At the very least MARC should try to run Baseball Specials from DC to the Orioles games at Camden Yards, I'm sure those would do fairly decent business.

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They did, but CSX forbade them in the past couple of years. It's a shame, given that the Camden MARC station in Baltimore is adjacent to the baseball stadium.

In my opinion there no doubt is a market for MARC weekend service, especially on the Penn Line, which is run by Amtrak. Amtrak does not serve the smaller stations like Odenton, Bowie, etc., so the commuter locals are still needed. I think there is an ample demand in Washington and Baltimore too to run weekend trains. Just one look at the crowds on the Mall near the Smithsonian, or at Baltimore's Inner Harbor, will tell you that more public transportation is needed. Both cities attract a lot of tourism, which after all would be the main draw since the business people are, for the most part, not working on weekends.

Likewise, running trains on the Brunswick and Camden Lines on weekends would be a winning situation -- if only they would try it. I would venture to say that while freight traffic still runs on weekends, the volume is lower; therefore there should be more "slots" for passenger trains. But tell that to CSX, who just plain detests passenger trains and won't do anything to promote or accomodate them.

You know when I go to JAX in April I would love to give CSX a piece of my mind.