Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 2: Commuter Rail System Profiles (2018)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

51 MARC is a commuter rail system operated by the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation (Maryland DOT). In addition to MARC, MTA operates local and commuter buses, Metro subway, light rail, and a comprehensive paratransit (Mobility) system. MARC off ers service on the Brunswick Line from as far west as Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Frederick, Maryland, to Union Station in Washington, D.C. MARC off ers service on the Penn Line from as far east as Perryville, Maryland, to Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. MARC also off ers service on the Camden Line from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. The Brunswick Line operates in the peak direction only during peak hours Monday through Friday. The Camden Line runs bidirectional service during peak hours Monday through Friday. The Penn Line operates the entire day on weekdays, with less frequent weekend and holiday service. MTA is a division of Maryland DOT, established under the Code of Maryland, Transportation Article. Appointed by the governor of the state, the Maryland transportation secretary is the chief executive officer for Maryland DOT. The secretary appoints the MTA administrator, who is responsible for the multimodal services operated by MTA, including MARC commuter rail. The MARC system contains 42 stations. Passengers can transfer at Union Station to other rail systems such as Washington Metrorail, Amtrak, and Virginia Railway Express and to bus systems such as Metrobus, D.C. Circulator, BoltBus, and Greyhound. Penn Station in Baltimore connects to MTA’s light- rail system, providing access to Hunt Valley, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, and Cromwell/Glen Burnie. MARC owns a mixed fl eet of single-level, Kawasaki bi-level, and Bombardier multi-level passenger cars. Motive power on the Brunswick Line and Camden Line is exclusively diesel. The Penn Line has a mixture of diesel and electric locomotives because the route operates on the Amtrak Northeast Corridor and is fully electrifi ed. GOVERNANCE MARC Maryland Transit Administration Martinsburg, WV–Frederick, MD– Perryville, MD–Baltimore, MD– Washington, D.C. HISTORY Maryland DOT began subsidizing Washington, D.C., commuter service operated by CSX’s predecessor, B&O (which later evolved into the Camden Line and the Brunswick Line). Maryland DOT entered into an agreement with Conrail, which had responsibility for the then very limited local passenger train operations between Baltimore and Washington along the Northeast Corridor (later referred to as the Penn Line) after the bankruptcy of Penn Central. The Maryland State Railroad Administration was established by executive order of the governor to oversee, fund, and improve rail services. The Maryland State Railroad Administration contracted with Amtrak to operate the Penn Line when a federal law relieved the Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail) of operating commuter trains. The Maryland State Railroad Administration created the name and logotype of MARC, resulting from a marketing study. MARC purchased its fi rst new locomotives and rolling stock. The Maryland State Railroad Administration merged with MTA. MTA now oversees the operation of MARC rail service. MARC began service on a 13.5-mile branch of its Brunswick Line to Frederick, Maryland. MARC replaced CSX rail operations with a bundled contract with Bombardier, while keeping a TRA with the host railroad CSX. 1974 1975 1976 1983 1984 1986 1992 2001 2013 Maryland DOT and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) entered into an operating agreement, in which Maryland DOT reimbursed the total operating defi cit for the trains and provided the rolling stock.

52 Contracting Commuter Rail Services, Volume 2: Commuter Rail System Profiles PERFORMANCE STATISTICS MTA manages its transit programs, including MARC, to fulfi ll regulatory requirements stipulated by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). MTA takes responsibility for reporting data to the National Transit Database (NTD) and meeting other FTA reporting requirements. MARC contractors, Bombardier and Amtrak, are in charge of collecting and providing data for MTA to report. Both Bombardier and Amtrak are certifi ed by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and take a primary role in handling the majority of FRA-related reporting. MARC oversees its contract operators, Bombardier and Amtrak, directly and oversees CSX under the TRA. MARC ensures full coordination between any of its own direct contractors and the two prime operating contractors, Bombardier on the Brunswick Line and Camden Line, and Amtrak on the Penn Line. MARC, MTA, Bombardier, Amtrak, and CSX jointly develop and implement resiliency and emergency preparedness planning. Local transit providers and multiple relevant local agencies are also involved in the preparedness exercises. The parent agency, MTA, has existing protocols for joint benefi t capital projects and interacts accordingly with CSX and Amtrak, or any independent third-party contractor for major capital projects. Over the years, MTA has worked with CSX to identify and then fund capital improvement projects with joint benefi ts for CSX and to improve reliability or capacity for MARC service. In some cases, these projects have actually been on CSX beyond the MARC service limits. Capital projects are always delivered coordinately with the respective host operating railroad for fl agging and other safety-sensitive functions on their own lines. The CSX Corporation, Inc. (CSX) is the current host railroad of the Brunswick Line and Camden Line. CSX operated the two lines in a fully bundled contract until 2013, when the Bombardier Transportation Services USA Corporation won a competitive bid to operate and maintain the two lines under an independent bundled contract. Amtrak is the current host railroad of the Penn Line and operates the line under a bundled contract. The current Bombardier operations and maintenance (O&M) contract took eff ect on July 1, 2013, extends until 2018, and has a specifi c option for an additional 5 years. MARC and CSX entered into a 5-year, renewable trackage rights agreement (TRA) to provide access, train dispatching, and track maintenance. The ongoing O&M contract with Amtrak for the Penn Line is renewed in increments of 5 years. The current contract with Amtrak for the Penn Line runs through June 30, 2018. CONTRACTED SERVICE Past Trends 2012–2016 Service Data in RY* 2016 Data source: NTD *Report year: for each report year, NTD collects data refl ecting the reporter’s operation in the same fi scal year. Annual Operating Cost: $139,558,116 Total Directional Route Miles: 400 Passenger Car Revenue Miles: 6,386,294 Unlinked Passenger Trips: 8,961,892 Annual Total Passenger Miles: 266,288,367 Operating Cost per Passenger Car Revenue Mile Operating Cost per Passenger Passenger Trips per Passenger Car Revenue Mile Passenger Miles per Passenger Trip $21.85$23.11$23.23$21.38 $16.67 20162015201420132012 $15.57$15.36$14.86 $13.47 $11.37 20162015201420132012 1.40 1.501.561.591.47 20162015201420132012 29.7129.7429.7130.3730.23 20162015201420132012 Oversight and Responsibili es General Contracted Service Informa on

MARC 53 A—Agency; B—Host Railroad (RR); C—Amtrak; D—Independent Contractors (RR or Non-RR) The matrix below illustrates the responsibility for major service functions for MARC. The capital letters A, B, C, and D represent the MTA in-house staff (MARC), the host railroad (CSX), Amtrak, and the independent contractor (Bombardier), respectively. The colors blue ( ) and orange ( ) stand for two diff erent contracts; blue is for the CSX and Bombardier contract for the Brunswick and Camden Lines, and orange is for the Amtrak contract for the Penn Line. Contracted Service Matrix A B C D Train Operations Maintenance of Infrastructure Maintenance of Equipment (1) Specifi cally: Train Dispatching Services Train Operations Maintenance of Equipment Facilities Maintenance (2) Maintenance of Way (3) Provision of Electric Traction Signals and Communication Positive Train Control (PTC) Maintenance (4) Station Operations and Maintenance (5) Non-revenue Equipment Provision Safety Management Security Services Environmental Services Management/Oversight Services Materials Management Services Risk Management Assessment (6) Customer Service Functions Marketing Communications Ticketing/Sales (7) Revenue Collection Information Technology Systems Accident/Fatality Investigations/Support (6) Supplemental Work Other (na) Notes for Matrix: 1. Maintenance-of-equipment contracts are based on maintenance of an average number of cars, allowing mutually agreeable interchange between fl eets assigned to Amtrak and Bombardier. 2. Bombardier maintains and operates the MARC-owned layover/minor maintenance facility at the Martin State Airport station on the Penn Line. 3. RailPlan, a subcontractor of CSX, maintains the right-of-way of the MTA-owned short branch rail line from Frederick Junction to Frederick, Maryland. 4. The host railroads (CSX and Amtrak) are responsible for the fi xed (ROW) PTC infrastructure and supporting functions. Operators (Bombardier and Amtrak) are responsible for installation and ongoing maintenance of the onboard rolling stock equipment. 5. Bombardier is responsible for the majority of MARC stations on the Brunswick and Camden Lines, with some support from local jurisdictions and subcontractors. Amtrak is responsible for the maintenance of the Washington Union Station (WUS) and all stations on the Penn Line. 6. MARC provides oversight and support for risk management and accident investigation. Operators (Bombardier and Amtrak) provide the actual function and necessary reporting supports. 7. In addition to several MARC- operated direct ticketing options, Bombardier and Amtrak conductors sell and collect tickets. Amtrak sells tickets via ticket windows at the WUS and via ticket vending machines at all shared stations (including the WUS) and several MARC-only stations.