<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:black;"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt;color:black;">Ridership is low now, but wait until those apartment buildings are finished near Whole Foods. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>Not sure if MARC has a marketing department. Assuming they do, this is what economic development is all about. Kevin, are you out there?<br><br>Bruce<br><br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Spiro Dimakas <spiro.dimakas11@gmail.com><br>To: Jonathan W. Ebbeler <jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com><br>Cc: towntalk@riverdale-park.org <towntalk@riverdale-park.org><br>Sent: Thu, Dec 5, 2019 12:29 am<br>Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] MARC Cornerstone Plan<br><br></div><div id="yiv3553625811"><div>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)<div><br clear="none"></div><div>I would hate to see them cut frequency because the ridership is that low.</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Spiro<br clear="none"><div><br clear="none"><div dir="ltr" id="yiv3553625811AppleMailSignature">Sent from my iPhone</div><div class="yiv3553625811yqt3648890463" id="yiv3553625811yqt14259"><div dir="ltr"><br clear="none">On Dec 4, 2019, at 10:33 PM, Jonathan W. Ebbeler <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com">jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none"><br clear="none"></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr">
</div></blockquote></div></div></div></div><div class="yiv3553625811yqt3648890463" id="yiv3553625811yqt03185"><div><div dir="ltr">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. </div>
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<div dir="ltr">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. </div>
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<div dir="ltr">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. </div>
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<blockquote type="cite">On Dec 4, 2019, at 9:57 PM, Caitlin Harwood <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:caitlinharwood@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:caitlinharwood@gmail.com">caitlinharwood@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div dir="ltr"> 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.)
<div>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. </div>
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<div dir="ltr" id="yiv3553625811AppleMailSignature">Sent from my iPhone</div>
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On Dec 4, 2019, at 5:46 PM, Dwight Holmes <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:dwightrholmes@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:dwightrholmes@gmail.com">dwightrholmes@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div dir="ltr">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!)
<div>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.<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 5:39 PM Lucy Aguirre <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:a.lucille.a@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:a.lucille.a@gmail.com">a.lucille.a@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_default" style="font-size:small;">Is there anything we residents can do to increase weekday service at the RP station? </div>
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<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_default" style="font-size:small;">Thank you,</div>
<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_default" style="font-size:small;">Lucy</div>
<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_default" style="font-size:small;">Queensbury Rd</div>
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<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 5:06 PM Dwight Holmes <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:dwightrholmes@gmail.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:dwightrholmes@gmail.com">dwightrholmes@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<div dir="ltr">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.
<div>(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!)</div>
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<div class="yiv3553625811gmail_attr" dir="ltr">On Wed, Dec 4, 2019 at 3:24 PM Jonathan W. Ebbeler <<a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com" target="_blank" href="mailto:jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com">jebbeler@efusionconsulting.com</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">
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<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal">All<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal">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:<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/Transit%20Projects/Cornerstone/MCP_MARC.pdf">https://s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-staging/mta-website-staging/files/Transit%20Projects/Cornerstone/MCP_MARC.pdf</a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal">There is a good blog about it here (in case you want to skip reading 68 pages)
<span>😊</span> :<u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><a rel="noopener noreferrer" shape="rect" target="_blank" href="https://ggwash.org/view/74948/is-marc-train-rail-new-cornerstone-plan-a-step-backwards">https://ggwash.org/view/74948/is-marc-train-rail-new-cornerstone-plan-a-step-backwards</a><u></u><u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal"><u></u> <u></u></p>
<p class="yiv3553625811MsoNormal">JWE<u></u><u></u></p>
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