How an old B&O branch could hold the key to returning passenger rail to Washington County in Western Maryland

For better or worse, public transit has become increasingly associated with America’s growing partisan divide. The general stereotype is that only large, liberal, Democratic-leaning cities want public transit, especially rail, while more rural, Republican-leaning areas want highways and roads.

But to find a very large exception to this “rule”, you only need look as far as Washington County, in Western Maryland. In that largely red county, an unlikely coalition consisting of a local Republican state senator, a DC-area transit advocate, and a bipartisan group of Maryland state legislators have spent the past several years pushing for an extension of the MARC Brunswick Line to Hagerstown. And thanks to recent legislation, that extension actually stands a decent chance of becoming reality in the not-too-distant future.

That’s partly because the most likely route for the extension has largely already been built. From the late 1860’s until the late 1970’s, the B&O Railroad operated a spur called the Washington County or Weverton Branch, which branched off of the railroad’s main line at a small hamlet in the south of the county called Weverton and ran about 24 miles to Hagerstown. The line hasn’t seen actual passenger service since 1949 or any service at all since 1975 and much of the actual track was abandoned a couple years later.

Nevertheless, according to Ben Ross, Chair of the Maryland Transit Opportunities Coalition, the actual track bed and right-of-way remain in good condition. Ross said the route goes under all of the highways it passes and it only intersects at-grade with one lightly trafficked country road at Keedysville.

Most importantly, although a couple privately owned portions are just large enough to have derailed past attempts to convert the line into a rail trail, almost the entirety of the route is currently owned by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. That’s very appealing in a state where most of the existing commuter rail track is owned by either Amtrak, CSX, or Norfolk Southern, often limiting how many trains the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) can run each day. “It’s really something that could be done very quickly if you had the will to spend the money,” Ross said.

Of course it’s exactly that will to spend the money that’s posed the greatest obstacle to reviving passenger rail to Hagerstown, according to Maryland Sen. Paul Corderman, who says he has spent the past four or five years pursuing the project. The barrier isn’t the actual cost of building the line itself — both Corderman and Ross believe the State of Maryland already owning most of the track would help greatly reduce that expense. It’s also not because of a lack of enthusiasm on local residents’ part. Rather, the barrier is because of reticence at the state level.

Corderman, a Washington County Republican, was born and raised in Western Maryland. But living in Baltimore and Rockville, he said he’s seen firsthand how much easier the Washington and Baltimore transit networks can make life in both areas.

Corderman says he originally approached then-Maryland Secretary of Transportation Pete Rahn “at least four years ago,” asking the Maryland Department of Transportation (MDOT) to include a study of connecting the Washington County Branch up to the Brunswick Line in the Consolidated Transit Program (CTP), the agency’s annual six-year capital budget for transportation projects.

“A year went by, nothing happened,” Corderman said. He said he asked again the next year; again, nothing happened.

At that point, Corderman, who at the time was still a delegate, decided to take matters into his own hands by introducing a bill, HB 1367, to require MDOT to conduct the study he and Washington County were asking for (Corderman was appointed to the State Senate shortly after the 2020 legislative session).

The bill received a fair amount of support, with officials from Washington County, Hagerstown, the Washington County town of Hancock, and neighboring Allegany County all testifying in support and the new Maryland Transit Caucus also adding its backing. The bill even passed the Maryland House of Delegates, 128-6, albeit only two days before the COVID-19 pandemic forced the General Assembly to adjourn a month early.

Though the bill was stalled, it succeeded in Corderman’s goal of grabbing MDOT’s attention — just not necessarily in the way that he’d wanted. MDOT officials had previously estimated to Corderman that the study would only cost “a couple hundred thousand dollars.”Now, Corderman said, they told him the cost would be closer to $1 million; later, they told him $2 million. In an emailed statement, an MDOT spokesperson did not directly address a question about the cost estimate changes.

That higher cost estimate put an initial damper on Corderman’s efforts to get another bill on the MARC extension, SB 869, through the Maryland State Senate. So after a couple months, Corderman tried another approach.

First, Corderman secured budget language to the same basic effect as his bill, asking MDOT to study the possibility of extending MARC to Western Maryland, and adding two additional routes to consider.

But the budget committee had similar concerns about the study’s price tag. So Corderman turned his attention to the Maryland Transit Safety and Investment Act (MTSFA), a bill introduced by Baltimore City Del. Brooke Lierman and Sen. Cory McCray.

The MTSFA called for a substantial increase in the MTA’s maintenance funds for its entire bus and rail fleets over the next six years and was a top priority for the Maryland Transit Caucus, which had previously supported both of Corderman’s bills. With over $110 million in the MTSFA’s funding going toward fixing the MTA’s maintenance backlog alone, Corderman figured tacking on his own bill’s $2 million price tag would seem much more palatable by comparison.

Lierman said including the Hagerstown MARC study in the MTSFA seemed like a good way to spread her own bill’s impact throughout more of Maryland and increase its chances of passing while also supporting a project, she and the rest of the Maryland Transit Caucus were already championing anyhow. “Having one comprehensive bill that would help multiple regions was an easier way to ensure passage and to address multiple challenges at once,” she said.

So Lierman and McCray agreed to fold the Hagerstown study into their bill as an amendment. Both House and Senate versions of the expanded bill passed each chamber of the General Assembly by veto-proof margins. Those margins could soon come in handy; Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed the legislation in May. If the General Assembly reconvenes in December for a special session on Congressional redistricting, as looks increasingly likely, Lierman expects the MTSFA would be one of the vetoed bills taken up at that time.

Additionally, when reached for comment, an MDOT spokesperson noted that a study the MTA initiated in July to evaluate future opportunities for MARC Brunswick Line expansion has since been broadened to include examining potential service to Western Maryland.

Regardless of if and when the MTSFA becomes law, Corderman remains optimistic about the opportunities extending MARC to Western Maryland could bring. He believes extending mass transit towards Hagerstown could boost that area’s economy, both by making it easier for residents to commute to the Washington region and by enabling reverse commutes from there to Western Maryland (not to mention the potential for growth in tourism).

“I’m a big believer and advocate of transit and the opportunities it can bring, especially out here in Western Maryland,” Corderman said. “We would love to see opportunities out in Western Maryland, not just in transit but all across the board, as far as economic prosperity and development and job access.”