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.
What! I thought that commuter rail, and soon to be light rail, projects iare candy cane fields and chocolate rivers. Before the councils mouthpiece runs their mouth about how 10B dollars is better than adding a couple of busses, know that the Baltimore Sun is reporting on an internal audit showing a 8.1B deficit so it's going to get a lot worse in MD. Just check the latest property tax increase of 12.2%, which BTW exceeds the cap voted on by citizens but overridden by a unanimous vote by the council.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I would argue about in this article from the alleged facts is this; "Trains found MARC ridership dropped 64% between 2018 and 2023". Was the author or the data analyst asleep during this time period. The entire country and this area (served by commuter rail) was under the effects of the pandemic, virtually no one was commuting to work, thus far fewer passenger than normal. Second, in the Maryland transit budget Governor Hogan was committed to the Purple lines development, and the addition of a Red line to the Baltimore subway system, thus diverting funds from capital budget issues like maintenance. I find this article very questionable.
ReplyDelete10:56: The author of the article stressed that the impact of the pandemic affected all rail systems, and was factored equally into the study. For example, VRE also declined in ridership, but still earned a B under the criteria applied.
DeleteFrom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARC_Train (original data source cited in the Wiki article)
Delete"... In 2024, the system had a ridership of 4,187,100, or about 19,300 per weekday as of the third quarter of 2025, less than pre-COVID-19 pandemic weekday ridership of 40,000...."
@7:03 - This decrease is due in large part to the continuation of telework and will probably be even drastically lower at the next period, resulting from King Don and the DOGE'ers evisceration.
DeleteI can’t find this article on Trains Magazine’s website. In which issue is this article, and what is the title?
ReplyDelete11:13: November 2025
DeleteCan confirm. Going to an O's game over the Summer, the worthless employee couldn't even tell what time the train was leaving nor which track. Zero help, and they are always behind or cancelling scheduled commutes, but MARC does provide a service and in spite of it's track record (pun intended) it's the best or economical way to get into Baltimore either downtown or up to Penn Station.
ReplyDeleteF for Futuristic?
ReplyDeleteBitching about no money being spent over the years to maintain the MARC system and then complaining about needing to invest to actually make this system perform better is truly the essence of this blog in a nutshell.
ReplyDelete3:18: I've always been strongly in favor of MARC funding and am on the record on this for about two decades.
Delete3:18 another with no clue on how to address and maybe ultimately fix issues. Likely thinks that chronically pulling the D lever will work. That didn't work, doesn't work, and won't work.
ReplyDeleteThey’ll never change. Only remedy is leave as I did.
DeleteOne of the most inexplicable and frustrating aspects of the MARC system, at least for the Brunswick Line that runs between DC and Martinsburg, WV, is that the line runs only ONE WAY (south) in the morning and ONE WAY (north) in the afternoon/evening. And the schedule in each direction is very limited. In addition, there are no trains on the weekend. It's a horrible way to run things.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the last morning train at the MARC station in Gaithersburg is 8:30 AM. That's it for the day, whether you want to go straight through into DC or transfer to the Metro system (e.g., at Rockville).
CSX initially ran the commuter line (I believe it's BTS now), and I recall CSX's response to the push to negotiate a deal to let MARC use both north- and south-bound tracks throughout the day: MD DOT can build its own 3rd track. Wow. That's quite a middle finger.
Way off track their 7:00 AM, wake up and smell the fact. (1) It is not inexplicable for a 'commuter' train to run primarily in ONE direction, this one being south in the morning. All major commuter trains/rail are just that, systems devoted to transporting mass numbers of workers, efficiently to work AM and PM. You will be hard pressed to do a reverse commute (outbound), against the flow either morning or evening, its not economical. (2) the schedule for these trains, again is development to meet workers requirements set to deliver their passengers prior to the start to the normal business day, and return at the end of the major portion of the day. It's not built for the leisurely traveler, your options are bus and/or subway. (3) Finally, weekends you say, see items one and two above combined. As for the rail lines ownership MARC trains run on tracks owned by different major railroads, primarily CSX Transportation (for the Camden and Brunswick lines). MARC doesn't own the tracks but has agreements for access, allowing it to run its commuter service over these host railroad lines, when not in us by CSX traffic.
DeleteI agree with 7:00 AM. I was strongly considering living within walking distance to one of the Brunswick stations so that I'd have easy access to a convenient means of public transportation to/from work. (Home prices and rentals tend to be more affordable a little further out.) It seemed like a great idea, given that some of the stations connect directly to the Metro line, such as at Rockville. It was disappointing to discover the lack of any southbound trains past 8/8:30 a.m. (earlier the further north you go on the line). Given my work schedule, that wouldn't work.
DeleteThe Penn line appears to run trains both north and south throughout the day, although availability is limited at stops north of Baltimore. Plus, the Penn runs on Saturdays :-) It looks like the Camden line takes a break mid-day.
@2:39AM - Visualize, if you can, showing up at the time of your work schedule and waiting for a heavy-rail train into DC. How many others do you think will be boarding such train from your point to the end in DC/ Not enough to meet a cost/benefit or demand quantity to pay for your chauffeured trip.
ReplyDelete