MARC’s new study explores how to boost Brunswick Line service

MARC released a draft technical report in January on how to expand service on the Brunswick Line and improve its regional links to Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland. Specifically, it outlines how to raise speed limits on its tracks, lift constraints on how many trains it can run, and run extensions to Hagerstown and Cumberland.

While it does have shortcomings and it’s not the first such report, this latest version — requested as it was by the General Assembly — could actually lead to progress.

Despite decades of complaints, Brunswick Line service has been limited

MARC’s Brunswick Line operates nine commuter-focused round trips per day from DC: six to Martinsburg and three to Frederick. It runs on tracks owned by CSX, a major freight carrier that uses the same right-of-way to move freight between the Port of Baltimore and critical distribution centers in the Midwest, particularly Ohio.

While relatively less trafficked, the Brunswick Line has the most balanced ridership of MARC’s lines – many people get on and off at the inner suburban stations, and relatively few get on and off at Union Station. Before the pandemic, the line saw about 7,100 riders per day, which crashed to just 251 from April 2020 to March 2021, and since recovered to about 2,400, or 33% what it was. The Frederick branch of the line hasn’t suffered quite as much as the rest, with 46% of its ridership back. In comparison, about 44% of Metrorail’s weekday ridership has returned.

Paltry service on the Brunswick Line has been a source of complaints for over 20 years, and riders have been asking for weekend and all-day service since the Frederick extension opened in 2001. Then-president of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce called the commuter-only service a “disappointment,” according to the Frederick Post, and said that it was “mostly of symbolic value.” When reporter Sean Barry asked MARC spokesperson Frank Fulton about additional service, he responded, “We’ve talked about that in the past, but we haven’t seriously considered it,” and said no feasibility studies or surveys were ever conducted.

Martinsburg hasn’t had weekend or off-peak service other than Amtrak since 1970. But riders have called for it: Public comments for the 2013 West Virginia State Rail Plan asked for weekend service, for example, but this did not make it into the plan itself.

Then in 2007, MARC made it a goal to turn Brunswick Line from a commuter railroad into a regional railroad. However, it has not built the infrastructure to do so. In frustration, and in response to the 2019 Cornerstone Plan’s rough roadmap to improve service on all lines, the 2022 Maryland General Assembly forced through a request to MARC to nail down the specifics on Brunswick Line expansion, over then-Governor Larry Hogan’s veto. This draft technical report is the result.

What the plan would do — and the barriers to doing it

Most of the plan’s infrastructure improvements would allow for additional trips, and it also outlines how to shave seven minutes off travel times from Frederick. It lays out five potential service enhancements: more peak service, reverse peak service, midday service, weekday late night northbound service, and weekend service.

MARC’s ridership model, based on pre-pandemic data, estimates these together would boost ridership 50%, with much of the increase from weekend, midday, and additional peak service. This may be underselling its potential, since travel patterns seem to be settling on a less pronounced morning peak, with more travel in the afternoon, evening, and on weekends. Metrorail, for instance, has seen its weekend travel come back stronger than weekday travel.

CSX imposes significant structural barriers to these enhancements. The company claims it cannot accommodate more than nine round trips per day between Silver Spring and Union Station. And between Metrorail tracks, the Purple Line, the Metropolitan Branch Trail, and adjacent buildings, there simply isn’t any more right-of-way to fit additional tracks.

To accommodate more trains, MARC envisions a new endpoint at Rockville that would allow passengers to transfer to Metro. This would involve adding some infrastructure like a pocket track so trains could pause and turn around without blocking traffic; there isn’t a design at this point. The report does not, however, discuss a potential endpoint at the future 16th Street-Woodside Purple Line station, which would allow for more direct access to Silver Spring and other points on the region’s eastern side.

A bigger network could be coming

Beyond envisioning new off-peak service, MARC is thinking about how to bring rail service to Hancock and Cumberland, and even reactivating a line to Hagerstown.

The Hancock and Cumberland extension would be well outside of the range for a typical commute to DC. While it would take 2 hours 37 minutes to get to Hancock from DC, Cumberland would take at least 3 hours 44 minutes. The line, already used by Amtrak, isn’t maintained for higher speeds along much of its track and trains would struggle to make it through the mountains. Still, because the line is active, costs for the extension are relatively low, likely less than $50 million.

In comparison, Hagerstown is much more of a lift. The report presents three options there: one would extend from Martinsburg along the Winchester & Western (W&W) track; a second option extends from just west of Duffields parallel to the Norfolk Southern (NS) track; and a third would extend from Brunswick along the mostly abandoned B&O right-of-way.

Of these, the W&W would be the lowest cost (somewhere between $50 and $500 million) but have the longest trip time at 2 hours 50 minutes. It would have the added benefit of not being a branch but part of the main line, at least so long as there is no extension toward Cumberland, meaning that trains wouldn’t need to branch, simplifying scheduling and any potential increased frequency.

The B&O option would have the shortest trip time, around 2 hours 33 minutes, but would cost over $500 million to build given the challenges of terrain, construction, and right-of-way reacquisition. The NS option would take about 2 hours 40 minutes, but would require entirely new track and bridges at least 26 feet away from its existing track, making the option just as expensive as reactivating the B&O.

Where the plan falls short

The Brunswick Line faces immense financial and infrastructural challenges to provide the service Maryland residents want, and it is good that MARC is finally looking at some hard numbers to better understand how to meet that demand. But the report also falls a little short.

The German railroading maxim, translated to “Organization before electronics before concrete,” means that a railroad’s problems should be solved first by better organizing existing operations before better utilizing existing infrastructure, and to do those before building new tracks. The report doesn’t seem to follow this, though.

Organization: While the lack of space to keep a larger train fleet is one reason MARC has not made progress on all-day, all-week travel, modifying the existing schedule might allow MARC to meet demands within CSX’s nine-round-trip limit and the existing fleet and infrastructure. The trips could be more evenly spaced throughout the day rather than lumped into peak hours.

Unfortunately, the study does not examine schedule changes or discuss structural barriers to scheduling changes. While CSX might want to keep its tracks free of passenger trips at times for unencumbered freight service, this is not clearly laid out.

Electronics: The potential for better rolling stock to speed up trips without infrastructure investments is also not discussed, nor is electrification, which would further speed up trips. These improvements could make service more competitive with driving and have a significant impact on ridership. Trains built to handle curves would also improve travel times along the potential extensions, particularly on the twisting track out to Cumberland, and boost their cost-effectiveness.

Concrete: Most problems are instead addressed through new construction. While it is certainly true that a lot needs to be built to reconcile CSX’s need to keep freight flowing and MARC’s desire to see more passenger service — more passing tracks, more rail yard space, better track alignments— there is not much inquiry into whether CSX is being truthful about its limitations, nor to what extent Maryland could force compromise.

The report also neglects to examine other ways to accommodate CSX’s freight traffic, such as shifting more freight to the Old Main Line. This information is critical for policymakers and advocates to understand the full context CSX and MARC operate within.

Let MARC know what you want on the Brunswick Line

Despite its shortcomings, the MARC Brunswick Line Expansion Study Technical Report draft moves the ball forward after many years of agitation from riders and residents. Though public feedback on this draft closed on April 20, you can submit questions to the project team through their email on the project page. Once it is submitted to the Maryland General Assembly later this year, you will have another chance to let your representatives know your thoughts.

Go to the Brunswick Line study project page for more details and to keep abreast of modifications and a final report.