# MARC commuter Weekend options



## Gallen (Apr 24, 2003)

I'm a MARC commuter holding a monthly pass. I thought I read that when MARC is not in service, namely weekends, monthly permit holders can use AMTRAK at a reduced rate.

Does anyone have any experience doing this? My station for MARC and Amtrak is BWI. As a side note, I thought since I have to go to DC on a Sunday, I would just get one of the $9.00 unreserved fares that Amtrak now offers on the Penn Line. Guess what, not on a weekend. Cheapest Amtrak fare, $25.00.

Again, any help is appreciated.


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## Superliner Diner (Apr 29, 2003)

Gallen,

Wish I could help you, but I do not recall seeing any such deal with Amtrak honoring MARC tickets, except on certain weekday trains, usually against the flow of the rush hour.

This brings up a point, why on earth doesn't MARC (or VRE for that matter) operate weekend service? If you look to the north at SEPTA, NJ TRANSIT, LIRR, Metro North, and the MBTA, all operate trains on Saturdays and Sundays, and all do very good business into and out of their respective cities. With both Washington, DC and Baltimore being tourist cities (and the crowds observed in both downtowns should be enough to back this up), these locations cry for weekend commuter service. It has to be a win-win situation for both the railroad and the customers.

The answer to the above question may be summed up in just three letters, namely CSX. This freight railroad has been rather unfriendly towards passenger operations over their rails, and I suspect that they are at least part of the reason there is no weekend commuter service on VRE, or MARC's Brunswick and Camden lines. That does not explain MARC's Penn Line though, which runs on Amtrak-owned tracks. But from MARC's point of view, would it be fair to offer weekend commuter service to one line's customers, and not the other two?

For your purposes, Gallen, if you're not going to plunk down $25 to ride Amtrak, then you might do better taking a Metrobus from the BWI area to Greenbelt, and then the Metro Green Line into the city. They started that bus route in the past year or so. You also have the Orange Line at New Carrollton.


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## battalion51 (Apr 29, 2003)

Well Amtrak does honor MARC tickets on unreserved trains on the corridor on weekends and off hours. I saw this on MTA's website. In fact here's a quote from MTA:



> MARC Penn and Camden Line weekly and monthly tickets are valid on unreserved Amtrak trains departing before 6:00 a.m. and after 10:00 p.m., and on weekends and holidays that MARC Trains do not operate, as long as the tickets are of zones equivalent to or greater than Amtrak destinations. (See the "Cross-Honoring" table following). Payment of a maximum "step-up" charge of $2.00 will be required when MARC tickets are accepted on Amtrak trains, except on those trains specically designated in the schedule portion of the current MARC timetable. The $2.00 charge applies on ALL Amtrak unreserved trains on weekends and days MARC does not operate


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