Commuter Railroads and Amtrak

Early-morning commuters prepare to board a MARC train at the Odenton station. Acknowledging the inadequacy of parking, a MARC spokesman says the station has become a victim of its own success. (Sun photo by Amy Davis) Oct 14, 2003.

For oh, about 6 years, I've been arguing that Amtrak is a key economic development aspect of the economy of the District of Columbia, and in fact, is one of the larger "industries" that we have, especially for high paying "blue collar" type jobs in the Ivy City Maintenance Facility, and of conductors, locomotive engineers, etc.
Looking into the Amtrak Maintenance Facilty from the Brentwood Road Bridge .

I've suggested more than once that DC's Department of Transportation needs to create a railroad policy unit to cover both the transportation of people as well as freight. (They recognize the need as well.)

Today's Examiner writes about the release of a GAO report looking at the impact of Amtrak closure on the various commuter railroads around the country, in the article "Amtrak stoppage would hit MARC service hard." The article discusses both VRE and MARC service. Actually, most of the service is on lines not owned by Amtrak as part of the Northeast Corridor, but still, most local commuter railroads don't have the capacity to maintain the service at this time, without contracting services from Amtrak.

Click here for the GAO report, GAO-06-470 Commuter Rail: Commuter Rail Issues Should Be Considered in Debate over Amtrak.

And here for a recent blog entry about how the local railroad commuter lines need to rethink and broaden their perspective about providing transportation service in the region, Thinking about the role of railroads in regional transit.

Brenda Klaunberg, advocating for the train. Caption: "We don't need fancy things," says Brenda Klaunberg, a 44-year-old veter inarian who commutes on the MARC Camden line to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. "We just want to get on and off." (Baltimore Sun photo by Amy Davis) Dec 21, 2005.

Riverdale MARC Station, Riverdale Park, Maryland.

Index Keywords: transit