As a daily MARC commuter, I'm always willing to be a MARC critic, but these were a nice couple of messages recently. Just posting here to note the decent communications performance.

Message to Brunswick commuters regarding morning delays at www.mta.maryland.gov , click on MARC loco
from MARC Alerts from Maryland Transit Administration
A message to Brunswick Line commuters regarding Thursday morning's delays--

We sincerely regret any inconvenience experienced during this morning's commute.

Around 5:45am, a CSX freight train experienced an unanticipated emergency brake application west of Germantown. Because the freight train, which was a mile and a half long, had railcars with hazardous materials in them, the train's conductor had to walk the entire length of the train to ensure that the train had not derailed and that no hazardous chemicals had been released. No trains--passenger or freight--can pass during this inspection process.

After the freight train got back underway, it experienced a second unanticipated emergency brake application between Rockville and Garret Park. Again, the conductor had to walk the entire length of the train. At that point, CSX opted not to attempt to move the train again until after MARC service concluded for the morning.

While we understand frustration with the lenght of the delays, these safety precautions are in place for your safety. This freight train has cleared the MARC operational area and will not be an issue for afternoon service. Thank you for riding MARC Train Service.

Follow up message/reminder regarding March 14 Penn schedule change at www.mta.maryland.gov
from MARC Alerts from Maryland Transit Administration
We appreciate the feedback that we have received regarding the March 14, 2011 Penn Line schedule change (view the new schedule at www.mta.maryland.gov).

In response to numerous requests, we have moved the departure of the last train in the morning from Perryville 50 minutes earlier than its current schedule. We understand that our passengers north of Perryville have limited options which make an already long commute difficult. The midday train to Perryville must leave Washington by 12:20pm because the equipment used for that train operates as a 5:00pm Brunswick or Camden Line train out of Washington. Penn Line rush hour equipment cannot be used to operate this trip because the locomotives must be removed from the train during the day for servicing and preventative maintenance. And, if a Penn Line trainset was used to run, for example, the 2:15pm train through to Perryville, the equipment would not be able to return to Washington in time for its evening rush hour service.

Passengers who need to get home between the midday Perryville train and the first afternoon Perryville train may want to use the Aberdeen Station. Aberdeen has parking available, and provides passengers the option of riding Amtrak train 148, which accepts MARC weekly and monthly tickets at no additional cost.

The largest number of Penn Line passengers board at stations between Baltimore and Washington. This is where the most significant overcrowding occurs. At this time, MARC’s funding and equipment is limited so the majority of our efforts to enhance the schedules is focused to address the overcrowding. By making more efficient use of equipment, we are able to increase capacity between Baltimore and Washington. By operating more frequent trains between Baltimore and Washington our goal is to disperse the passenger volume among more trains, thus reducing the dwell times at station to board and unload passengers and operate on schedule, a benefit to all riders.

Considerable time was spent with Amtrak to coordinate our schedules and minimize the delays caused by rail congestion on the Penn Line—this includes adjustments to times from current schedules that should minimize Amtrak interference north of Baltimore.

We look forward to the upcoming Meet the MARC Management events where we hope the dialogue with our passengers will continue. Thank you for riding the MARC Train Service.

I live in South Florida. My roots to Baltimore are my favorite team, the Ravens.
Public transportation down here sucks. We needed that money to improve transportation and create about 23,000 jobs. Rick Scott is a horrible, cocky governor.
I would love to see Baltimore get that money. Our loss is your gain.
Go for it!

It's so important to improve on the rail service we already have. When there's so much planned with Red Line expansion, etc., we really need to make sure that the bridges can be upgraded so that the trains can actually go the 100 mph that they are designed for. Currently the bridges will not allow for speeds like that. It seems to me that we should make the $52 billion necessary improvements before we spend a dollar on additional rail projects.

How about they just give that money back to the taxpayers where it belongs? Or if they won't do that then use it to pay down the national debt instead of wasting it on "projects"

Hey Mike, "I would love to see Baltimore get that money". Where is the money coming from Mike??? The Country is BROKE! We're 14 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt! Having said that, I'm not surprised BOY KING wants the money that WE DON'T HAVE. He has no convictions nor any concern for anything other then the next office he holds. When this project ends up like the "Big Dig" in Boston this "hack" will be long gone. And you Mike, won't be paying higher taxes when the federal money runs out and the project is incomplete.. Try being glad for something you'll actually have to pay for!

Dear Mike. Think of the entire story before commenting. State of Florida would have been on the hook for $3 Billion for that project. And the ridership wouldn't able to pay for annual operation cost so the state would have to put MORE money in every year, when the state is broke like every other state (like Maryland) Federal Government is broke too so where is this Billions of dollars coming from?
One more thing, this is not a shovel ready job creator that the President likes to talk about. This is just an idea, there has never been any environmental studies, engineering surveys, rights of ways negotiated with private citizens and municipalities (which will i'm sure will create a lot of law suits) so this isn't going to happens for Years down the road. Keep your politics in check and look at the facts. our country is BROKE. This is no time to start a fantasy rail service with more tax dollars when Amtrak can't even sustain themselves and requires infusion of tax dollars every year. How about NOT spending that money to help reduce our debt. that'll be more useful.

So what boodoggle is O'Mally going to spend it on?

These are rational projects to enhance useful rail lines that people ride on - as opposed to putting rail lines in area where people need the car to get around, or building high speed rail systems for which there is no consumer demand.
Washington and New York are good cities to be without a car in. Commuters need rail to jobs in those cities. The cities in Florida lack the buses, subways, etc to support local rail commutes.

Sure! Lets get a few hundred million more in the Transportation "Trust" Fund so O'Malley has more in his SLUSH FUND!

Gotta love how it has the word TRUST in the name. It means we should just TRUST them to spend it on what it was meant for.

After decades with no plan and paltry federal funding of our passenger rail system, the Obama Administration has made investment in high-speed ground transportation a hallmark of its infrastructure investment proposals. High-speed rail received billions in the Stimulus Bill, more in annual appropriations bills, and is now the subject of an unprecedented $53 billion budget request to Congress.

The Administration should be congratulated for focusing much-needed attention and funding in this critical transportation and economic development area. However, in the execution of its programs, the Administration has run into opposition from states that look beyond major capital awards from the federal government, and ask the question: “If the new rail systems we’ll build do not pay for themselves, who will pay for the resulting operating deficits?”

States from Ohio to Florida have come to the same conclusion: until systems can be developed that will at least break even, or until some entity can be found to take on the ridership and operating risks, large grants from the federal government will be seen as millstones around state taxpayers’ necks.

In this regard, the Administration has missed an important opportunity by not seriously considering high-speed magnetic levitation – maglev – transportation technology. Congress created the Maglev Deployment Program in 1998 to study the feasibility of deploying this next generation of transportation technology, with very positive results. Despite the promise of maglev, and the local support for the projects, that work seems to have been forgotten or pushed aside.

Among the benefits of high-speed maglev are safety – maglev does not share infrastructure with other traffic, thus avoiding collisions; energy efficiency – maglev systems can move people on a seat-mile basis consuming much less energy; environmental friendliness – maglev systems have no direct emissions; and small footprint – maglev systems consume less land than other modes, like highways or traditional trains; and speed – maglev systems easily top 300mph. Currently a great percentage of the rails in this country are owned by the freight operators who do not welcome the possibility of compromising their operations for higher speed passenger service.

But the key ‘discriminator’ in this equation – one the Administration has ignored – is the annual cost of operations and maintenance – the very area that has caused states to return billions of dollars to the federal government.

Because maglev systems are electronic rather than mechanical, contact-free and friction-free, their operating and maintenance costs are dramatically lower than conventional steel-wheel-on-steel-rail systems. It is a principle of physics that the faster a steel wheel rubs against a steel rail, the more quickly each will deform and degrade.

The Administration refers to its high speed rail grants as an investment. However, to us, making an ‘investment’ assumes that there will be a ‘return’. Without a ‘return’, an investment is just more spending. While it is true that U.S. passenger rail systems, no matter the speed, have required massive annual public funding to cover operating losses, this does not necessarily mean that a strategically located, true high-speed rail system cannot be self supporting − a real investment benefiting the public and region served, not just an expenditure of public funds. Studies have shown that maglev service located in a high-density corridor, with speeds in excess of 240 mph that can offers service every 10 minutes or less, can attract the ridership needed to make the project able to be financed.

What is needed in the Administration’s high speed rail program is a true life-cycle analysis approach: while it is important to evaluate how much it will cost to build a system, it is also critical to evaluate how much it will cost to operate and maintain that system for decades to come.

When that analysis is performed, we believe the costs of building maglev systems – which are roughly the same as the costs for building true high-speed rail systems – combined with the lower cost for operations and maintenance – will show that maglev is a viable and cost-effective technology.

Hey, the country was broke 10 years ago but that didn't stop Bush from spending trillions of dollars invading Iraq for no reason and with no benefit for us. At least we can all benefit from a decent rail system.

I honestly have no problem with the FL Gov giving back the money. He made a smart move because neither Orlando nor Tampa has the infrascruture in place in those cities to support rail travel. It will take cars off the highway connecting the cities but not off the city streets or the highways near the cities, as people will just rent cars when they get there.
Its different in the NE corridor. Here we have DC, Philly, NYC & Boston that people can easily get around and Baltimore is slowly becoming better at that. So, people will ride and stay off the road. People already ride at record levels in this area.
Once you get the NE corridor working correctly, then you can slowly branch out to other areas that can support the customer once they arrive.
And please note, this is not money for the transportation trust fund, this money would be required to go into the rail system. Its federal money allotted to a specific thing, not just given to the state to do with as it pleases.
So, both O'Malley & Scott are 100% right on this.

Just because Governor Rick Scott dropped the ball it doesn't mean that the money shouldn't go somewhere that there is both a need and people willing to put it to work. This money will still be used for infrastructure and although many people are near-sighted when it comes to the ROI as well as jobs that will be created, it shouldn't be shelved. Remember the iPad? Everybody said it would fail and nobody would use it.