MARC Brunswick Line Schedule Change July 16

The MARC Train Service wants to thank our Brunswick Line customers for providing feedback to Version 2 of the proposed MARC Brunswick Line schedule change.  We received over 1,300 responses to our online survey and E-mails and over 200 of you attended our three Town Hall meetings.  We appreciate you taking the time to share your comments with us.  MARC has spent the past month reviewing your comments and working with CSX to make revisions to the second draft.

A new schedule for the MARC Brunswick Line will take effect on Monday, July 16th.   You can view the new schedule by clicking here to download a copy.  We have also prepared a side-by-side comparison between the current and new schedules, which can be viewed by clicking here.

At the bottom of this page is a list of the changes from the second draft proposal to the revised schedule, based on our second round of feedback from customers.  The one significant concern that passengers expressed that we were not able to address is the addition of stops to the current non-stop Rockville-Point of Rocks afternoon train.  With increasing ridership in Montgomery County and a limit of nine trains in the afternoon rush hour, MARC cannot justify operating a non-stop train which skips our largest (Germantown) and third-largest (Gaithersburg) stations.  We appreciate the fact that adding stops to Train 877’s express service will lengthen commute times, however, limited-stop service will be offered on Trains 875 at 4:25pm and 879 at 5:40pm.

After 90 to 120 days of real-time operational experience, we will make adjustments to the schedule as necessary, as we are doing on the Camden Line.

Thank you for your patronage of the MARC Train Service

Specific information on changes between Version 2 and the final schedule change:

A.M.  Service

• The first departures in the morning from Brunswick and Frederick will be 10 minutes earlier, to ensure that customers can arrive in Washington by 6:30am and 6:45am, respectively.  This was requested by many passengers.
• At the request of passengers and the Mayor and Town Council of Kensington, the proposed 6:25 a.m. stop at Kensington on Train 890 will be dropped and a later stop added to Train 876 at 7:42 a.m.  This will also help Frederick Branch riders as this train will make one less stop.
• The proposed 6:00 a.m. departure from Martinsburg will be shifted to 5:00 a.m., at the request of West Virginia passengers.

P.M.  Service

• The 4:25 p.m. Washington departure of Train 875 will be maintained.  Draft two had proposed a 4:15 p.m. departure, which was disruptive to customers’ schedules.
• The 5:15 p.m. Washington departure of Train 893 will be maintained.  Draft two had proposed a 5:35 p.m. departure; customers complained that this added a significant amount of time to their commute.
• Train 881, the proposed 6:15 p.m. departure to Martinsburg, will depart at 6:20 p.m. to provide more even spacing of service to West Virginia.
• Train 895 will depart Washington at 6:40pm to provide adequate spacing between it and train 881 and also at the request of passengers who make connections from the Camden and Penn Lines.
• Running time between Monocacy and Frederick is standardized for all trains at 10 minutes