MARC Transfer Station

I was looking at Route 1 on Google Maps and I realized that this location where the NEC and CSX Capital Subdivision cross would be perfect for a transfer station (a la NJT's Secaucus Jct) between the Penn and Camden Lines (way) in the future. The location is right on Route 1 and easily accessible from I-95, there's also plenty of space, and the property (which I assume is owned by the RRs) is completely undeveloped.

The big problem with this is that the station would be less than a mile from the brand new Halethorpe station on the Penn Line and the St. Denis station on the Camden Line (plus BWI station isn't that far either). The St. Denis station isn't really an issue since ridership is extremely low, it's only served by one train a day, and the MTA already tried to close it a few years ago.

Building a brand new station next to Halethorpe, which was just rebuilt would be a waste of $$$ though. Another problem is the lack of ridership (which is why it probably wouldn't make sense anytime within the next decade or two) since Union Station already serves as a connection point between the two lines, as well as the Light Rail shuttle in Baltimore. Not to mention that there probably isn't many potential Penn Line riders who want to go to a Camden Line station and vise versa.

Well in any case if the ridership ever gets to that point where a transfer station becomes needed this would be the perfect spot.

That would be an interesting but hard sell with the new Halethorpe Station. If you want to make things flexible, I would suggest rebuilding the CSX/Amtrak link.

Put this location into Google Maps

39.277821,-76.67382

Then follow the outline of a train track to

39.276058,-76.664566

And you'll see actual rail.

The route could be configured to allow bidirectional movements between the NEC and CSX lines.

Unfortunately both lines run parallel to each other literally, and both of them serve the same city pairs. It probably wouldn't be economically feasible to build a transfer station for the two lines. It's not like Secaucus Junction.