Trains magazine, a publication that provides in-depth coverage of the passenger and freight railroad industries, recently used federal transit data to rate America's commuter rail systems. Maryland's MARC commuter rail received a failing F grade, ranking it as one of the nation's worst. In contrast, Virginia Railway Express earned a B.
The magazine noted that MARC service expanded during the 1990s, and that the state made great effort to update train equipment during the gubernatorial terms of William Donald Schaefer and Parris Glendening. This century, the picture has turned far bleaker for Maryland rail commuters.
Trains found MARC ridership dropped 64% between 2018 and 2023. MARC now has the worst cost efficiency, and the poorest mechanical reliability record of any medium size commuter railroad in the country. In other words, Maryland is at rock bottom in commuter rail service. The magazine summed up its analysis of MARC by saying, "it's tough to find a silver lining."
Reporter John Friedmann described the criteria and data utilized in the magazine's survey as follows: Each railroad was graded on the same five criteria. Efficiency was calculated by the operating cost per passenger mile. Utilization, or how much do passengers utilize the network, was measured by the number of passenger miles per route mile. Growth was determined by a comparison of 2018 ridership versus 2023 ridership. Relevance was measured by number of rail trips per area resident. And reliability was rated by the number of mechanical failures per train mile.
All data was compiled from the Federal Transit Administration's National Transit Database.
Not surprisingly, the Long Island Railroad and Metro-North Railroad in New York earned an A grade in the survey. So did commuter systems in Salt Lake City and Denver, railroads that aren't discussed as often as their more famous counterparts like the MBTA, Metra, and SEPTA, all of which scored below the Utah and Colorado lines in this survey - but far higher than our beleagured MARC. Can it get any worse for Maryland? Yes! Beyond a massive structural budget deficit forecast, any Purple Line financial losses will siphon even more money from MARC over the coming decades.
MARC has great potential. But it operates at such an odd schedule based on a dated approach to transit and commuting. If it was more of a regional rail system (or mixed), allowing riders to easily connect between Frederick and Rockville or between Baltimore / DC on weekends or evenings, a non-commuter rider category. It could even have a ticket price different for commuter routs vs regional. Open more access to existing stations, still cheaper than Ubers, rental cars, or Amtrak. Adds new service and revenue streams. Focusing on commuter service based on assumptions and data that are very dated simply does not make sense.
ReplyDeleteThe Denver lines are not just commuter. They have a system of light rail and commuter rail to 50 some stations meeting needs of various rider types - tourists, entertainment venues, shopping hubs, central business areas, direct airport connections, universities. I've used the system many times. It's great.
Your second sentence (9:38) totally misses the mark on why MARC has such an odd schedule. The service is demand based, and the demand for heavy rail service in this region relies on the worker population. It removed the burden and expense of SOV's from the regions road network. This is the same service you see at VRE, these two systems do not have the demand for providing after-hours service in this region. In the past, similar, limited service was provide between Baltimore and DC for baseball games, and it was a disaster.
ReplyDeleteNo effort has gone into reimagining the MARC rail service, which still has pretty much the same stations it had a century ago, despite the fact that the way people travel near the stations farthest from DC, i.e. people actually have cars now, and the fact that the population in the southern part of Montgomery County, for example, has skyrocketed.
ReplyDeleteMaybe fifteen years ago, the State proposed closing one of the very low ridership stations in northern Montgomery County. In part, it was a very sensible proposal that produced the expected local pushback. On the other hand, it was a stupid idea without negotiating with CSX to replace it with the planned (by MC’s Master Plan not MARC) North Bethesda station; CSX owns the tracks and has taken a no-net-increase-in-stations stance, so giving up one without having an agreement on a new one was ridiculous. But the larger issue remains: Do we just keep running the same service without an assessment of how we can maximize ridership within our constraints?
12:38: I do think one of the keys to a better future for MARC is establishing a strong and mutually beneficial partnership with CSX. The long blabbered-about 3rd track on the Metropolitan sub is just one example where we're going nowhere without that relationship. Higher IQ elected officials are definitely needed, as our current crew doesn't grasp basic concepts of how business and the world operate in 2026.
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