Let's Get to Work

'Let’s Get to Work, ’ an initiative of the Transportation Alliance, is a strategy for implementing improvements to MARC commuter rail service that can be achieved within five years. The Baltimore metro area and the DC metro area, only about 40 miles apart, have realized significant residential and economic growth over the past several decades. Their proximity to each other and synergies between the growth industry sectors that populate both regions have resulted in the two regions increasingly functioning as one mega-region with residents and workers traveling back and forth for leisure as well as for business. Currently, the MARC service is focused on carrying commuters to DC during the weekday peak morning and afternoon times. The MARC service does not serve the new job centers north of Baltimore, created in large part due to the BRAC relocations. It also does not serve the expansion of the BWI Airport, transit oriented development projects, nor the changing nature of the workplace, increasingly no longer 9 – 5, Monday through Friday.

As roads and highways become more and more congested (Baltimore ranks 5th in congestion in the US), the need for public transportation options, and in particular commuter rail, has increased. While long-term projects such as the Red Line Light Rail extension in Baltimore, the Purple Line extension of the DC Metro in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and the Corridor Cities Transit project in Montgomery County must remain priorities for the region, the lack of federal and state funding and the 10 – 15 years it will take to complete such projects does nothing to address today’s transportation needs.

Transportation improvements are necessary to address today’s conditions as well as to keep pace with near and long-term growth, and these improvements must include efficient public transportation service. MARC is the only existing regional commuter rail operation that serves a significant portion of Central Maryland and connects Baltimore area communities to Washington DC and its suburbs; consequently, it provides the best opportunity to improve the transportation network in the near-term.

The Transportation Alliance’s MARC initiative will focus on three critical elements of a robust rail service:

1. The need to increase the frequency and efficiency of rail service in order to provide access to job opportunities and to a trained and skilled workforce, from Perryville and Aberdeen north of Baltimore, to Union Station in Washington, D.C. and all points in between.

2. The need to increase passenger rail service to support other economic assets in the Baltimore/Washington region, including healthcare, higher education, transit-oriented development projects and airports, particularly BWI.

3. The need to increase rail service as a catalyst for creating value for private sector investors and developers, public-private partnerships and other financing mechanisms.

In addition to developing the strategy for implementing “Let’s Get to Work,” the Transportation Alliance is also conducting a campaign to collect signatures from organizations across many sectors who endorse the call to make near-term improvements to the MARC system. We will use our Feasibility Study and Phase I Recommendations, along with the signed Declarations to present a strong case to decision-makers in Maryland that the MARC system is the best opportunity to expand transportation options for this region’s citizens in the near term. For more information, contact Brian O’Malley at bomalley@cmtalliance.org.