Penn Line

The Maryland Transit Administration is planning a sweeping expansion of its popular but crowded MARC commuter train service, including weekend runs and additional weekday trains by next year and a tripling of the system's capacity by 2035. The detailed blueprint, outlined in a briefing by MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld, envisions a system that eventually would stretch from Virginia to Delaware and have the capacity to carry more than 100,000 riders a day. The plan, the cost of which would amount to billions of dollars over the next 28 years, would add tracks in areas that are bottlenecks and would increase the frequency of train arrivals.

Maryland's commuter train system is getting a major revamping with a timetable that adds midday and rush hour service, a new stop at Laurel Race Course and a cafe-parlor car that will offer food, drinks and first-class seats.The revised schedule unveiled yesterday by Mass Transit Administration goes into effect Jan. 31. State officials said the changes should make train service more convenient and reliable than in the past."What we're trying to do is enhance our service and create a more flexible schedule," said Maryland Transportation Secretary O. James Lighthizer.

As a publication, it's about as riveting as watching mud dry, but commuters have reason to cherish the new MARC Commuter Notice.It's a weekly newsletter outlining the on-time record of all Maryland Rail Commuter trains on the Penn Line. The journal notes when trains are more than five minutes late and the reasons for the delay.That may not seem like much, but it's a happy event for long-suffering MARC commuters who have begun to wonder if anyone's listening to their complaints. Trains on the Penn Line -- from Perryville to Baltimore to Washington -- have MARC's worst on-time performance.

Forget tulips, cherry blossoms and daffodils, the sweet smells of tar and asphalt are in the air.Yes, April marks the return of paving season, that time of year when loads of concrete, heavy equipment and men waving orange flags are unceremoniously dumped onto Maryland's highways and byways.The State Highway Administration estimates that the agency will spend $500 million on road and bridge construction projects in 1993. That's a significant increase from last year and an "above ++ average" level overall, says Jim Kelly, SHA's deputy chief engineer for construction.

A U.S. District Court yesterday ordered 2,350 conductors and assistant conductors not to go on strike against Amtrak, sparing tens of thousands of rail passengers from being left at the gate today.Judge Stanley Harris signed the temporary restraining order against the United Transportation Union in Washington in the late afternoon at the urging of lawyers representing Amtrak, who contended that a strike was illegal.The walkout would have begun at 12:01 a.m. today and shut down all Amtrak passenger service as well as commuter lines that use Amtrak tracks or Amtrak personnel.

Fretting over uncertainties caused by the 2-day-old rail shutdown, Maryland commuters and business officials found ways to cope yesterday as the federal government moved to get the trains rolling again.The machinists' strike against CSX Transportation Corp. -- brought to at least a temporary halt when President Bush signed an arbitration bill early today -- shut down two of the three lines on the Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) system Wednesday.Trains continued to run on the Penn line, which links Perryville to Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station and points south ending at Washington.

Maryland transportation officials were adequately prepared to get rail commuters to work today as freight railroads shut down coast-to-coast today and Amtrak stopped passenger service everywhere except in the Boston-to-Washington corridor.Luck and well-laid plans were parts of the local picture in wake of one union's strike against a single freight line, CSX.And part was the result of commuters taking things into their own hands.Maryland's only one of three commuter lines able to operate because of the strike was MARC's Penn Line from Perryville in Cecil County through Baltimore to Washington, D.C.The Camden and Brunswick rail commuter lines were shut down.

State officials say they will deploy a small fleet of buses, shift passenger train operations and launch a public relations offensive to reduce confusion and frustration today among the 8,000 Maryland Rail Commuter passengers who are expected to lose normal service in a national rail strike."

George Lavdas tells unpleasant stories about rush-hour service on Maryland Rail Commuter trains.Like the time a train got stuck in a Baltimore tunnel for two hours, prompting a claustrophobic passenger to break a window.Or the times people were packed "like cattle" in the small compartments between cars.Or the times the state-operated MARC trains ran late from Baltimore's Pennsylvania Station to Union Station in Washington, the route Lavdas travels to his job at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A strike by the nation's rail unions this week would halt trains on two of Maryland's three MARC commuter lines, Joe Nessel, the state's director of rail passenger services, said Friday.The strike threatened for Wednesday morning probably would force the closing of the two routes -- the Brunswick and Camden lines -- that operate over CSX Transportation tracks, Mr. Nessel said. Those two lines daily carry about 5,200 and 2,800 passengers, respectively.However, Penn line MARC trains that operate out of Pennsylvania Station in Baltimore over Amtrak tracks to Washington are expected to continue to operate normally.

Amtrak has finished overhauling and has returned to MARC the second of four AEM-7 electric locomotives that had been out of service for more than two years, bolstering the commuter rail system's ability to haul long trains and reduce crowding. Maryland Department of Transportation spokesman Jack Cahalan said the newly returned locomotive performed well on the first of a series of tests in which it hauled a train equipped with a backup locomotive - the first of the AEM-7s returned by Amtrak.

Delays, cancellations and crowding are a way of life aboard Maryland's MARC Penn Line, but crowding has been worse than usual the past three weeks as the Maryland Transit Administration has struggled to round up enough locomotives to pull its trains. The main problem is that six of MARC's 10 electric locomotives are out of commission - forcing the use of less powerful diesel engines that can pull fewer rail cars, said MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene. The underlying issue: MARC's entire locomotive fleet is decades old. Crowding aside, MARC's locomotive troubles have not caused any additional commuter train delays or cancellations, Greene says.

The Maryland Transit Administration will introduce the first of its 26 new diesel locomotives for its MARC commuter train service Wednesday at a Camden Station news conference with Gov. Martin O'Malley. The new $100 million fleet is expected to improve the capacity and reliability of service on the MARC lines, which have been hampered in recent years by frequent equipment breakdowns. Three of the new locomotives are in Maryland and are undergoing the final stages of testing, said MTA spokeswoman Jawauna Greene.

In a setback to its ambitious effort to expand the MARC commuter train service, the Maryland Transit Administration has dropped plans to add weekend service to its Penn Line or midday runs to its Camden Line this summer. MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said last week that the agency has so far been unable to reach agreements with Amtrak or CSX, which own the two lines, on opening up slots in their schedules for the added service. In September, Wiedefeld unveiled a sweeping 28-year plan to triple capacity on MARC, a system whose growing popularity has led to severe crowding.

So you've just said goodbye to your job in Baltimore and have accepted an exciting new position in Washington. The nation's capital beckons, but not its inflated real estate market. You want the best of both worlds: D.C. pay and prestige, Baltimore ambience and affordability. And being a smart cookie, there's no way you're going to pay the exorbitant cost of driving to Washington and parking there every day. Sounds like you're a perfect candidate for MARC. Not so fast, hotshot. Commuter rail isn't for everyone.

Maybe you've booked that spring getaway, and now you're counting the days. But before you pack the car and speed off to the airport - or harass that unsuspecting relative for a ride - consider your transportation alternatives. With its myriad transit options, Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was recently ranked as one of the 10 easiest airports to get to by Aviation.com. You can take public transportation (train, light rail or bus), drive and park at one of many airport or private lots, or go by cab, shuttle or limousine.

Lori Kantziper of Mount Washington, under the delusion that this column is written by a "local travel expert," sent this query: My 17-year-old son and three friends are going to attend the Washington Wizards game in D.C. on Friday. The game starts at 8 p.m. They really don't want to drive, but I can't think of another way for them to get there. If they take the Metro from a suburb, then there's the time involved of waiting for the return Metro back to the car and then driving home. That could take an extra hour or so. I do remember one of your columns discussing the MTA bus that leaves from BWI and goes to D.C., but I have a feeling that it just runs during commuter hours.

In a sign of the merging of the Washington and Baltimore metropolitan areas, state officials approved a plan yesterday to add trains to the rail link between the two cities. The Board of Public Works voted to add three trips to the MARC Penn Line each weekday evening by mid-February. Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, who presented the plan to the board, said the first train will leave Washington's Union Station in the early evening rush hour to help alleviate some of the extreme crowding on the Penn Line.

The Maryland Transit Administration is planning a sweeping expansion of its popular but crowded MARC commuter train service, including weekend runs and additional weekday trains by next year and a tripling of the system's capacity by 2035. The detailed blueprint, outlined in a briefing by MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld, envisions a system that eventually would stretch from Virginia to Delaware and have the capacity to carry more than 100,000 riders a day. The plan, the cost of which would amount to billions of dollars over the next 28 years, would add tracks in areas that are bottlenecks and would increase the frequency of train arrivals.

There are good days and bad days for MARC commuters. Yesterday was just plain awful on the Penn Line as an escalating series of problems combined to delay several trains for hours and to force the cancellation of others. The miserable morning, triggered by a train breakdown, came as MARC was coping with overheated tracks, brush fires, mechanical problems and all the other things that can go wrong when you're running a railroad. Some Washington-bound commuters arrived at Union Station as much as two hours late as a result of multiple system failures.