The Maryland Department of Transportation Maryland Transit Administration MARC Train is expanding travel options for Maryland commuters by providing a direct weekday connection between Montgomery County and Baltimore. Beginning Monday, September 28, the innovative, new service creates a fast, seamless and transfer-free ride for commuters through central Maryland and expands travel opportunities for MARC riders.

This service reflects the Moore-Miller Administration’s commitment to continuously improving the customer experience by making the existing rail network work smarter. Until now, riders did not have a one-seat connection across the major destinations of Rockville, Gaithersburg, College Park, Laurel and Baltimore. Now they will. By adjusting existing service, MTA is able to provide this new connection without additional annual operating costs. MARC is making that trip easier for many morning and evening commuters and reducing commute times by up to 60 minutes.

Improved travel times will make it easier for Marylanders to access destinations by rail. For example, a MARC train ride from Silver Spring to Baltimore Camden Station would be reduced in half from 118 minutes to 57 minutes. A ride from Germantown to College Park, which now takes 90 minutes, would be reduced to 46 minutes. And a MARC train ride from Gaithersburg to Baltimore Camden Station, which now takes 137 minutes, would be reduced to 78 minutes. Rail travel times will now be competitive with drive times between those same destinations.

The service will directly connect Brunswick, Point of Rocks, Barnesville, Germantown, Metropolitan Grove, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Kensington, Silver Spring, College Park, Laurel, and Baltimore with one train traveling to Baltimore in the morning and one returning in the evening.

To accommodate this new service, there are changes to several Brunswick and Camden Line trains. Riders can download a copy of the new timetables here: Camden Line / Brunswick Line.

-via Press Release