VRE & MARC Holiday Schedule

Kaback9 wrote:Would it be better to have MARC have their own crews? I think its great giving Amtrak and CSX the business but at the same time I think maybe getting thier own crews would allow for a better schedule. Any thoughts?

Amtrak and CSX don't even want the "business"--they feel the cost of MARC using the railroads is greater than the fee they pay. They really only do it for tradition sake (particularly CSX) since their predecessors (B&O, Conrail, PRR) operated commuter service. And getting their own crews would probably having no effect at all on scheduling. Now if MARC owned the trackage (they currently only own the Frederick Branch), it would be a whole different matter...

NJT does not own the NEC but they manage to run their own train crews on it, I'm not buying that. I believe it has to do with the MTA showing a lack of interest in the railroad. If there was any interest at all there would be no slashing of trains that make sense, and there would be route expansion going on, and yes you guys would have weekend service.

It's probably got more to do with the scale of the operation in its early MTA days. At that time (and potentially still today), it probably didn't make sense to set up everything that's entailed in hiring its own crews and essentially setting up a new railroad company. It probably doesn't make sense even today, versus contracting out to companies that are already experienced at managing railroad employees and operations.

There are larger systems that MARC that are still contracted, notably MBTA, LA Metrolink, and significant parts of the Metra system. In fact, off the top of my head, the only commuter agencies that operate their own railroads are Metro North, LIRR, NJT, SEPTA, Metra (part of), and the South Shore. And the South Shore/NICTD is the only one in the small category.

Yes but Metra, Metrolink and MBTA all offer weekend service.

Kaback9 wrote:NJT does not own the NEC but they manage to run their own train crews on it, I'm not buying that. I believe it has to do with the MTA showing a lack of interest in the railroad. If there was any interest at all there would be no slashing of trains that make sense, and there would be route expansion going on, and yes you guys would have weekend service.

Geez, this no weekend service is really bothering you. Is Amtrak that bad??? Trust me when I tell you the MTA (and the [liberal] Maryland government overall) show a very strong interest in mass transit, and heavily fund projects which would recently include adding extra trains, replacing all the bilevel seats, rehabbing the AEM-7's, buying all of VRE's Kawasaki's back, rehabbing the single level cars etc. I seem to remember reading on the NJT board recently how NJT was making all these ridiculous major cuts that pale in comparison to the 1 and a half round trips MARC's cutting, and how the state was ignoring NJT. This recession will most definitely slow the MARC expansion down though. And you can forget about weekend service in the near future.

Reasons:

1. The recession
2. If Amtrak didn't run the NEC, MARC would definitely have weekend service, but since Amtrak already runs frequently and stops at all the stations, and accepts MARC passes (the MTA pays a fee of course), its not an immediate priority for weekend service.
3. Unlike other metro areas where the private sector accounts for most of the jobs, the majority of MARC commuters (into DC) are federal workers, who don't work on weekends (for the most part. So you can't simply ask why smaller systems have weekend service and MARC doesn't.
4. Amtrak (and the crew) don't want to run the service, and the current Amtrak/MTA contract doesn't expire for at least another year or so.

Amtrak is bad on weekends between Baltimore and DC a(Im sure if you had to put up with the stuff that I have between those two stops you would be angry as well,there are more stories but I'm not here to complain about Amtrak whe besides this I have no problem with what so all) and it annoys me that there are MARC trains just sitting there. Especially since a line like the Penn line should have weekend service, NJT makes alot of Bonehead cuts but they would never get rid of weekend service on the NEC.

realtype wrote: but since Amtrak already runs frequently and stops at all the stations

Buy all, you mean "everywhere but Seabrook, Bowie State, Odenton, Halethorpe and West Baltimore", right?

Seriously, you made 4 valid points. Kaback, I'm sorry that it's such a burden to ride Amtrak on the weekends between Washington and Baltimore. I'm sure that the trip magically gets better once you get North of Baltimore, but no amount of whining is going to bring service to the weekend on the Penn Line. When the MTA has the money and can get the crews to operate, I'm sure that we'll see the service, but not before.

HokieNav wrote:

realtype wrote: but since Amtrak already runs frequently and stops at all the stations

Buy all, you mean "everywhere but Seabrook, Bowie State, Odenton, Halethorpe and West Baltimore", right?

My mistake I meant to say all major stations (BWI, Balt., New C., DC). Odenton is really the only major station that they don't stop at.

realtype wrote:

HokieNav wrote:

realtype wrote: but since Amtrak already runs frequently and stops at all the stations

Buy all, you mean "everywhere but Seabrook, Bowie State, Odenton, Halethorpe and West Baltimore", right?

My mistake I meant to say all major stations (BWI, Balt., New C., DC). Odenton is really the only major station that they don't stop at.

I don't often catch you in a mistake, had to bust your chops. Really, Odenton (my station) is only about 5 minutes by rail, so I don't blame Amtrak for not stopping. Now, if only we could get some MARC express train love in the PM, that would be great (but that's a different story).