Action Committee for Transit, June Meeting: June 12 - All day MARC to Frederick - What would it take? Speaker: Fritz Edler, veteran railroader and advocate

MARC Brunswick Line train at Garrett Park, Maryland station.

ACT's monthly meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month, at the Silver Spring Civic Center, One Veterans Place. Meetings begin at 7:30pm.

The Silver Spring Civic Center faces the ice rink and Ellsworth Avenue. It is an eight minute walk north from the Silver Spring Metro Station. Many bus routes can take you to and from the meeting. Ride-On #15 and #19 stop at the corner of Wayne Ave. & Fenton St.; Metrobus routes Z6 and Z8 and Ride-On routes #9 and #12 stop along Colesville Road; Ride-On #16, #17, and #20 pass by on Fenton St. If coming by car, plentiful evening parking is available at the Wayne Avenue garage and is (despite ACT's advocacy against subsidies for drivers) free after 7 pm.

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With regard to this topic see these past blog entries:

-- "One big idea: Getting MARC and Metrorail to integrate fares, stations, and marketing systems, using London Overground as an example," May 2015

Note that I just experienced this on my UK trip. Where I stayed in Hackney was literally across the street from the Hackney Wick London Overground station. Unfortunately, the one platform entrance directly across the street was under renovation, so I had to walk around the block. The line connected to other Overground rail lines as well as to the Victoria Line station at Highbury & Islington. It was awesome. During the day it runs very frequently, but unfortunately as the night wears on, about every 20 minutes.

-- A new backbone for the regional transit system: merging the MARC Penn and VRE Fredericksburg Lines," March 2017

-- "Setting the stage for the Purple Line light rail line to be an overwhelming success: Part 2 | proposed parallel improvements across the transit network," March 2017

• item #3 calls for farecard system integration between MARC, SmarTrip/CharmCard
• item #4 calls for the introduction of bi-directional passenger rail service between DC and Frederick on the MARC Brunswick Line
• item #6 calls for acceleration of the plans to build an infill MARC station at White Flint
• item #8 calls for providing integrated train arrival information screens at Metrorail, Light Rail, and MARC stations. This doesn't occur at present, even at the Silver Spring and Rockville stations
• item #14 calls for setting the opening of the Purple Line as a deadline for the integration of the MARC Penn Line and VRE Fredericksburg Line into one combined railroad passenger service
• item #17 calls for improved bicycle facilities at MARC stations

Note that one additional item should have been included, creating a back up Brunswick Line station within DC at Fort Totten

This station is accessible to the Green and Yellow Metrorail lines, as well as the Red line, if there are issues with either Union Station or the Red Metrorail line it would provide a level of redundancy (backup) for the MARC Brunswick Line which is not currently available.