Pay Up or Hit the Road, Md. Transit Officials Tell West Virginia

For many years, the state of West Virginia paid nothing for the MARC commuter rail service that carries hundreds of residents to jobs in Maryland and Washington, D.C., every day.

For the last two years, officials in the Mountaineer State have been warned that the gravy train would soon end, and that they had better compensate Maryland more fully for the six trains — three eastbound and three westbound — that MARC runs to and from the eastern panhandle cities of Harpers Ferry, Duffields and Martinsburg.

Despite the warnings, the West Virginia legislature has been unwilling to come up with the $3.4 million that Maryland is seeking to maintain the current schedule.

Maryland’s response: a steep reduction in service.

MDOT will hold hearings next month on a plan to eliminate four of the six trains that run between Union Station in D.C. and West Virginia, effective Nov. 4.

Read more: https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/08/19/pay-up-or-hit-the-road-md-transit-officials-tell-west-virginia/