Morning VRE on time record?

I am contemplating taking VRE from Broad Run (Train 324) that arrives at Union Station at 7:00 am, and connecting to MARC train 506 departing at 7:12am. Does anyone know what the on time performance of the VRE train is? I always see on the board they list the train as "on time" for arrival every morning. But I also know that doesn't count for much as my MARC trains are often 5-20 minutes late arriving at Union Station and it'll still show "on time." Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

It sounds like you're familiar with Union Station, but I wouldn't count on a 12 minute connection to go from the VRE gates all the way down to B/C gates. Where are you taking the Penn Line to?

You can see how many times the train has recently been late here: http://vre.org/service/daily-download.html

Inbound MARC trains will always show "on time" regardless if they're late or not. The reasoning behind this seems to be that it's unlikely that anyone would be meeting an inbound MARC train at the station, since it's mostly a commuter train. Outbound trains show actual delay status though.

If VRE pads their schedules as much as MARC does on the Camden/Brunswick lines (by 10-15 min) you may have enough time.

I take the MARC to Odenton. How long is the walk from the VRE train into the terminal at Union Station?

Cool, I live in Odenton. 5 minutes tops, depending on where you come in (I've never ridden VRE, but I know they all come in on the lower level). If you're familiar with where the Sbarro is, that's where the MARC gates are.

Assuming that you're going to catch the bus to Fort Meade (why else would anyone ride out to OTN?), you'll have to cross under the tracks to meet the bus next to the station building.

Yup. Been doing this for 2 months. So far I've been taking Metro and then MARC. Been debating whether to do the MARC TLC monthly ticket or just the VRE monthly with free cross boarding privileges to MARC. But I need to be on the 7:12 train and not the later ones.

dpan wrote:I take the MARC to Odenton. How long is the walk from the VRE train into the terminal at Union Station?

The VRE platforms are at the east side of the station (near the McDonald's) where the through tracks are located. The walk from the train to the station concourse entrance probably would take 2-3 minutes if you are near the stairs/escalator. The MARC platforms are at the other (west) end of the station, and getting from the (I think) Gate K/L area to the Gate A/B area will take a couple minutes, though it could take a bit longer if you have to fight through a lot of people. The walk from the waiting area to the MARC Penn Line train would take less time than the comparable walk to/from the VRE train in large part because the tracks MARC uses are essentially at station concourse level rather than one level lower than concourse level and (on a related note) the MARC trains use high level platforms while the VRE trains use low level platforms.