[RP TownTalk] MARC Cornerstone Plan

Thu Dec 5 11:35:31 UTC 2019

Ridership is low now, but wait until those apartment buildings are finished near Whole Foods. 

I want to echo Dwight's comment, but in addition we need to get the message out to folks to the north and south of the Riverdale Park Town Center MARC station.  It's an incredible resource for commuting as well as casual travel to Martinsburg, Camden, Baltimore, and so on.  The report Jonathan distributed opened my eyes to the possibilities.  

It may be worthwhile to spin the MARC up with the Riverdale Park Station folks if it hasn't already been done.  MARC access is beneficial for anyone living there not to mention the Arts District in Hyattsville.  

Not sure if MARC has a marketing department.  Assuming they do, this is what economic development is all about.  Kevin, are you out there?

Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: Spiro Dimakas <spiro.dimakas11 at gmail.com>
To: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com>
Cc: towntalk at riverdale-park.org <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
Sent: Thu, Dec 5, 2019 12:29 am
Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] MARC Cornerstone Plan

Average Daily ridership is pegged at 44 people. Get a survey together of those residents who use MARC/Metro and find out what station they use and for those that don’t use Riverdale why they don’t use it (Frequency, Parking, Cost, etc)
I would hate to see them cut frequency because the ridership is that low.
Spiro

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On Dec 4, 2019, at 10:33 PM, Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com> wrote:

Just my two cents but several years back MTA was planning on scaling back service altogether at the RP station.  It took dragging transit officials before Council and reading them the riot act to get them to back off.  If you push off advocacy to state representatives you have already tacitly acquiesced the point. If local voices don’t demand something, there is no reason for the state to advocate for the town.  
A great example of this is the bridge over the tracks to RP Station. This was completely a local effort. One of our former state representatives chaired the state Public Works Committee at the time but state money did not fund its construction.  Regardless of support or lack thereof for the bridge construction, because it was driven by local voices it became a reality. 
Service, including continued service, will always depends on ridership metrics. Unfortunately many RP residents end up buttressing the CP ridership statistics due to the better, more frequent service at that station.  Dwight is right - it’s the easiest way to commute into DC.  

On Dec 4, 2019, at 9:57 PM, Caitlin Harwood <caitlinharwood at gmail.com> wrote:

 I have actually reached out to our councilman Aaron Faulx about this. He said it has to go to the State level and be brought up at a meeting in which state reps are present. Hoping that happens soon. My low bar suggestion is to have the 2 trains that currently pass through RP but don’t stop actually stop there. (There’s one around 8:30 am and one around 5:30 pm coming back from DC.)I’m personally willing to take signatures from town members in support of it, but until it gets on the docket at the state level, there would be no platform to show such signatures. 
Caitlin

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On Dec 4, 2019, at 5:46 PM, Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com> wrote:

Get more of your friends, colleagues and neighbors to board the train at RP!  Give 'em all the selling points: Inexpensive vis-a-vis Metro (even moreso if you have federal commuting benefits through your employer), free parking!, 10 minutes to Union Station!)It's a numbers game.  While ridership has increased at our station, it's increased up and down the line and we are still one of the low-ridership stations.

On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 5:39 PM Lucy Aguirre <a.lucille.a at gmail.com> wrote:

Is there anything we residents can do to increase weekday service at the RP station? 
Thank you,LucyQueensbury Rd
On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 5:06 PM Dwight Holmes <dwightrholmes at gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks, Jonathan.  As the blogger says, doesn't seem to be anything new in there. I believe O'Malley laid out similar goals when he first became governor.  On our Camden line, one afternoon train from Union Station was added (lv 3:30) but of course it doesn't stop at Riverdale Park Town Center station.(Meanwhile of course they also haven't kept up with promised annual fare cost-of-living fare increases and it is still, by far, the Best Deal in Town!)
On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 3:24 PM Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler at efusionconsulting.com> wrote:

All

In case anyone is interested, and since this impacts the community as a whole, MARC has released their new Cornerstone Plan.  It includes some ambitious goals like adding a third track, expanded weekday service and limited weekend service.  You can find a copy of it here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/Transit%20Projects/Cornerstone/MCP_MARC.pdf

There is a good blog about it here (in case you want to skip reading 68 pages)😊 :

https://ggwash.org/view/74948/is-marc-train-rail-new-cornerstone-plan-a-step-backwards

JWE
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