dt_rt40 wrote:This _fact_ sparks some of the most contentious web debates I've seen about a state...but a reminder...Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon. It may be the least southern southern state, but it is a southern state! OTOH, it contains the southernmost northeastern city, which is what Baltimore is. IMHO, it would still take 20-30 years...and gas prices slowly racheting up over that time, which may well happen...for MD to become fully "northeasternized" with a mentality that would support a network the size of Septa, MBTA, or, gasp, any of NYC's systems.
Well, I'll have to disagree with Maryland being a Southern state. Maybe it was back when the M-D Line was drawn and up until the Civil War, but not so much now (although there are definitely
some localized Southern traits here and there).
Northern, southern, or whatever though, I think Maryland actually has a deep love affair with rail, but it's not very apparent. I did a project a few years ago on transit usage, and believe it or not, Maryland actually has the
highest percentage of people who use transit to commute to work of any state in the country (according to Census data). The B&O railroad Metropolitan and Capitol Subs (predecessors of the MARC Brunswick and Camden lines) predate pretty much every other passenger railroad in this nation including those in the NE. The state also helps support the 2nd busiest subway/heavy rail system in the nation, and will be spending half of its transportation budget over the next few decade or so on rail transit projects.
The problem has to do with numbers, not really mindset. Philadelphia and New York have much larger urban/suburban populations which can support many rail lines. On top of this is Metro, which shares its suburb-to-city model with San Francisco's BART, siphons off a lot of potential riders from MARC. Even people outside of Metro's service area will drive to the end of the line and park. Your example is a typical case of So. MD commuters driving to Branch Ave. This competitive effect in New York (PATH) and Philadelphia (PATCO) is very limited.
Another reason why MARC isn't among the busiest and most expansive commuter rail systems is the 9-5, Mon-Fri federal work schedule shared by most commuters, and it's at the mercy of CSX (and Amtrak) who is absolutely against any additional service without additional track capacity. That said, MARC still manages to carry more passengers than any commuter railroad in the South (including twice as many as neighboring VRE).