STrRedWolf

STrRedWolf t1_j777b5c wrote

Ahhh. I can only relate to my college-year experience going down to UMCP, when they opened Dorsey station 30-ish years ago. Most of the time, it was normal, boring, slightly crowded, with occasional delays.

For going to DC now, I'd just go to the Penn Line.

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STrRedWolf t1_j7748in wrote

Before we get too far, there needs to be some background here.

The MARC Camden Line runs on CSX tracks, not Amtrak tracks like the Penn Line. That means you're contending with freight train traffic... and many of the railroads want to run longer freight trains.

The line is double-track (YAY!) but has some areas of contention (from north to south, skipping some small track branches):

  • HB TOWER Interlocking (read: track switch) east of Raven's Stadium, which lets trains go through the Howard Street Tunnel, over to Locus Point, or down to DC.
  • BAILEY Interlocking, which lets trains go north, east, or south depending on direction of travel... and pick a track.
  • CARROL Interlocking, which lets trains go around and possibly connect to the ol' B&O Museum, head down to Curtis bay, or continue south through the Mount Winans train yard.
  • ST DENIS Interlocking, as we move down south, before the actual MARC station. This allows trains to hit the right track to go to Western Maryland via Elicott City, or continue south. The MARC stop requires some track protection.
  • Further south you have DORSEY and the MARC station just north of it.
  • You got JESSUP Interlocking and the MARC station north of it, which is a good spot to catch some track switching action (and not a good station to actually, you know, catch a train to DC from). It feeds into a major CSX yard for use in offloading cars. The other end of the yard has PA TOWER and FT MEADE JUNCTION Interlockings north of the Savage train station.
  • You got SAVAGE Interlocking south of that, which just lets trains switch tracks.
  • South you got two stations, the Laurel Racetrack (two doors wide) and Laurel itself. Further south, Muirkirk.
  • The next full track switch you got is AMMENDALE Interlocking. Gee, that's a lot of track to have a train on one side.
  • You got Greenbelt station, that lets MARC trains offload on "pocket" tracks... and get trapped with too long freight trains. College Park and Riverdale stations are after that.
  • Then you get to RIVERDALE PARK and JD interlockings, which lets trains go down further south through Virginia.
  • And finally, before you hit Union Station, you got F Tower, which lets trains ether switch to Amtrak trackage or curve back northwest to QN tower.

I think you can see why trains get delayed.

The only benefit here is that Dorsey and Savage are closest to Columbia, where a TON of people live. Dorsey's close to BWI (and it's pay-to-park station) and Savage is close to Odenton (and it's free-but-full station).

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STrRedWolf t1_j1yw29j wrote

The issue there is the Camden line is a CSX freight line, the Metropolitan line, which introduces too many wrenches to wreck the works. St. Dennis is also near a junction where CSX's Old Main line connects up -- that line connects up to Monocacy and Fredricksburg, aka a branch of the MARC Brunswick line.

So "do-able"? Not really. But I'd support bus service from Halethorpe to the Guinness factory.

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STrRedWolf t1_j1wmo3h wrote

This is what is going to happen:

  1. Lawyers will ask MTA for all footage of the derailment, and will also have the TikTok video.
  2. MTA provides the camera footage (inside and out). And yes, the cameras work, audio and video.
  3. Lawyers of people who weren't on the train in the first place are going to go to their clients and say "WTF?!? MTA knows you weren't there. We're going to lose big if we take this to trial." (Those too stupid and continue to trial get burned real bad here)
  4. Lawyers for the people on the train will quietly get a settlement from MTA of a few thousand dollars per person max.
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STrRedWolf t1_j109mdw wrote

Prior to COVID-19, everyone was packed because Baltimore was packed. You had people coming into the office, working 8-9 hours, coming out, getting drinks during happy hour, maybe a dinner, take a show or two, drinks afterwards, stumble on home and hope not to get mugged or stabbed or shot while you were at it.

Now... well, everything's shifted to work-from-home and most companies have kept a hybrid approach. Some companies have even reduced their "footprint" or office space used... because you can do it from home. My office, for instance, was about 80 people on the floor... and now it's zero. Support staff are in the datacenter's office now. Last time I went, it was basically a ghost town.

So there's not many people going into the office. They're not driving into Baltimore, having happy hour, taking a show, yada yada yada. And thus why your local dive's not open at O'dark 30.

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STrRedWolf t1_ix0yv89 wrote

20 years have passed. While I would originally love this map... well...

  • I really think we should start switching over to subway lines instead of light rail. It'll have greater capacity.
  • The green line subway extension was part of the original plans and should be completed.
  • Some lines may not be viable anymore.

It could use a bit of reworking.

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STrRedWolf t1_iwudfta wrote

I traced a DC to Boston route, going MARC-SEPTA-NJ Transit-Metro North-Shore Line East-MBTA. The entire route along the NEC, all stops, using current schedules and doing some logical extensions... was nearly 16 hours, and no cafe. Oh, and transfers at Newark/Wilmington, Philadelphia, Trenton, Penn Station/Grand Central (Yes, you gotta take two subway lines between the two), New Haven, and Providence.

Compare with the Amtrak Regional which was 8 hours with a cafe. Set aside the expensive Acela.

Cheap? Sure, I'll give you that. But you got multiple transfers, one requiring a "complicated" path because of how the two train stations are. Your timing's going to be tight, and you may be able to grab lunch somewhere, but you're be ready for dinner at Boston South Station and you've spent all day.

Lets throw in airlines, Dec 4 for example. Southwest, BWI to Boston Logan. 1.5 hours flight time, 2 hours buffer at BWI, 30 min to get whatever luggage (remember, 2 bags fly free). That's 4 hours... for $50 flat one way. Amtrak? $132, 8 hours, one way... but then you miss getting scanned, frisked, and repeated sniffed in the butt by a TSA K-9 unit. (I won't go into sarcastic details there)

The point here is there's an overall quality of service. Sure, you'll get there with end-to-end commuter rail. But if your timing sucks... it'll be a hell ride.

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STrRedWolf t1_iwnsz4z wrote

MARC is worth it. At the time I was taking it (Odenton/Baltimore) it was $162/month, while parking was at least $200/month, plus the coffee at Odenton was worth going down there instead of up to BWI. The time I spent not driving was spent writing my first novel.

Now, the office is closed up, my job now officially 100% Work-From-Home. The coffee shop is gone, sold to another person who swapped the coffee out for crap.

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