MARC trains in Brunswick, MD

BeyondDC likes to gripe about how Washingtonians are too obsessed with Metro. Metro is great, we like to argue, but it’s not the only tool out there. We can do a lot with regional rail and streetcars, too. We were delighted then to catch the Post’s article today regarding MARC’s expansion plans. The Maryland commuter rail operation that’s long been relegated to shuffling a handful of trains in and out of the city each weekday is, for the first time since it was known as the B&O Railroad, thinking big. Plans call for a litany of long and short term improvements, including more frequent trains, extensions into Virginia and Delaware, and service on the weekends, among other things. The idea is transform MARC from, in the words of the Maryland Transit Administration’s own Henry Kay, a “marginal”, mere commuter operator, into “something that resembles public transit”. In other words, something that more resembles Chicago’s Metra than Virginia’s VRE.

If that’s not exciting news, we don’t know what is. Saturday trips to the Inner Harbor and Sunday jaunts to Harper’s Ferry sound fantastic.