MARC railroad expansion delayed + presentation this Friday...

See "MTA growth plan stalls: Chief called for added MARC service this year," from today's Baltimore Sun. From the article:

In a setback to its ambitious effort to expand the MARC commuter train service, the Maryland Transit Administration has dropped plans to add weekend service to its Penn Line or midday runs to its Camden Line this summer.

MTA Administrator Paul J. Wiedefeld said last week that the agency has so far been unable to reach agreements with Amtrak or CSX, which own the two lines, on opening up slots in their schedules for the added service.

Last September, Wiedefeld unveiled a sweeping 28-year plan to triple capacity on MARC, a system whose growing popularity has led to severe crowding. Among the early goals were adding weekend runs to the Monday-Friday Penn Line service and beefing up the Camden Line's midday schedule within nine months.

Now, nearly a year later, Wiedefeld acknowledged the difficulty of carving out additional capacity. Amtrak owns the Penn Line between Perryville and Washington, while CSX owns the Baltimore-Washington Camden Line and the Brunswick Line between Washington and Martinsburg, W.Va.

Don't forget the talk this Friday,MARC Outlook by John Hovatter, Director of Maryland MTA's MARC Train Service

MARC train north of Rhode Island Avenue Station
Originally uploaded by rllayman

DC chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society
August 15, 2008
B&O Station, Silver Spring, MD.
8 PM - free