realtype wrote:Looks like someone (successfully) is fighting to keep at least one MARC train alive:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/ ... 0755.story
This late train, and train 871 (the midday Brunswick) trains are the most ridiculous cuts in the MTA's proposal. I hope more persons step up, so we can get the MTA to use common sense like when they wanted to close four MARC stations, but received a large amount of protests.
The guy who was quoted in that newspaper article works in the same office I do. I can tell you he a frequent transit user/advocate who often voices agitation with the MTA (not just the proposed MARC cutbacks but also the short trains on the light rail when big events are held at M&T Bank Stadium or OPACY).
The ideas expressed in that article are right on point - the late night MARC trains may not have as high of ridership, but they have a decent number of occasional riders. No late night trains make it difficult not only for Baltimore residents who work in DC, but also Baltimore residents who want to make a day trip to DC and stay fairly late.
One final point - even though it's not rail, it is absolutely idiotic that the state of Maryland relocated the Greyhound station from downtown to nearly a mile south of M&T Bank Stadium not near a light rail stop back in 2004. I know there was opposition to relocating it up near Penn Station, but they should have found a way to move it near Penn Station or keep it in the general area where it was located (near Lexington Market, which is an excellent location transportation-wise). Between the lousy Greyhound station location and the lack of MARC weekend service, I'm much less inclined to go to Baltimore for day trips from Silver Spring than I would be otherwise. (The non-convenient routing for the light rail north of downtown that is too far from most neighborhoods I'd like to check out also is a factor, but that's another story.)