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Cleaner Locomotives: Coming to a railroad near you?
Monday, March 08, 2010
Maryland’s MARC has become the first US passenger railroad operator to purchase the latest innovation in clean locomotive technology: MotivePower Inc.‘s MP36, which does not consume fuel while idling (as many locomotives do for extended periods) thanks to an electric auxillary power unit. Trains, already the most fuel-efficient form of land transportation on a per-passenger basis, are becoming even more green thanks in part to their growing stature, which in turn is partly due to travelers’ increased recognition of the environmental impact of getting around. Eliminating idling removes a significant amount of particulate matter from areas around railroad terminals, making the air in places like Washington’s Union Station noticeably purer.
MARC expects lower fuel costs and increased customer satisfaction to come from its investment. Should these predictions prove true, operators around the country should follow suit.
Check out Clean Skies TV’s look at MARC’s new power:
Thanks to former NARP Vice President David Johnson, now Trainmaster at MARC, for bringing this to our attention.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: clean air, clean skies tv, efficient, green, idling, locomotive, marc, maryland, motivepower, mp36, particulates,Can a lost rail connection be regained?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
The following was written for Greater Greater Washington, a blog focused on smart growth, transit, and enhancing livability in the national capital region—and is reprinted here. The original is here.
Have you ever wondered why the H Street/Benning Road NE corridor is wider, flatter and straighter than most surrounding streets? The answer lies in a little-known chapter of mid-Atlantic railroad history that may also point a way towards a better transportation future for our region.
The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) provided passenger and freight service on an electrified route between its namesake cities from 1908 to 1935. The line provided a third rail route between Washington and Baltimore, complementing (and competing with) the Pennsylvania Railroad (which is now Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor) and the Baltimore and Ohio (B&O, now the MARC Camden Line).
Long-gone WB&A station at the “starburst” intersection in Northeast DC. Image from rockcreek on Flickr.
The WB&A entered Washington from Seat Pleasant, MD, via Benning Road NE, which was widened and graded to accommodate the trains. It originally terminated at its own station (misnamed “White House Station”) at the “starburst” intersection of Bladensburg, H & 15th Streets and Maryland and Florida Avenues. Hechinger Mall on Benning Rd. NE in Carver/Langston was built on the site of the WB&A’s rail yard and maintenance shop.
Eventually, the line was extended west on H Street all the way to 15th Street NW at the Treasury building, sharing infrastructure with Capital Transit streetcars. At one point, the current site of the Greyhound/Peter Pan bus depot in NoMa was also a WB&A station.
The WB&A also offered direct train service from Baltimore to Annapolis, and riders from DC could disembark at Naval Academy Junction, near Odenton, and connect to Annapolis-bound trains (which also connected with the Pennsylvania at Odenton, and with the B&O at Annapolis Junction, the station for which is now called Savage).
Despite that a trip from downtown DC to Baltimore took an hour and 20 minutes on the WB&A, versus 50 minutes on the B&O, the WB&A remained popular for its cleanliness, lower fares, half-hourly service and better downtown terminal locations than the other two railroads. Imagine being able to hop on an electrified train in the heart of downtown DC and ride directly into the heart of downtown Baltimore.
The former WB&A right-of-way northeast from Seat Pleasant is mostly intact. It roughly paralleled what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Highway through Glenadren. Electric Avenue and Railroad Avenue in Glenn Dale are named for the former rail line over which they were paved, as is WB&A Road in Severn, near BWI Airport. Parts have been retained as a bike trail, with plans to extend the trail along the entire right-of-way from Lanham to Odenton.
The federally-funded construction of Defense Highway (U.S. 50) in the early 1950s, combined with improved service on the competing railroads, doomed WB&A’s service to DC, though the Baltimore-Annapolis section continued passenger service up to 1950, and freight service into the 1970s, as the Baltimore & Annapolis Railway (B&A). This right-of-way is now used by Maryland MTA light-rail trains as far south as Glen Burnie, and exists as a bike trail from there to Arnold, across the Severn River from Annapolis.
Today, by contrast, downtown-to-downtown service between the capital city and Charm City is offered only at weekday rush hours, while faster, more frequent daily Amtrak trains serve Penn Station, a fair hike from Baltimore’s downtown core (though now connected to it by light rail). If you want to take a train from either city to Annapolis, you’re out of luck.
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From Baltimore, you can take light rail as far as Glen Burnie, then change for the number 14 bus, running on a roughly half-hourly schedule, with hour-and-a-half headways on Sundays.
But Washington’s only connection to the Maryland capital’s walkable downtown, universities and state government buildings — aside from changing at Baltimore or BWI Airport — are rush hour-only Maryland MTA commuter buses 922 & 950, and two daily Greyhound round-trips (one direct, one via Baltimore) that continue to Ocean City.
The Odenton-Annapolis WB&A line, which passed through the middle of what is now Westfield Mall on its way into Annapolis, is mostly lost. Restoring light rail service along either this right-of-way, or the old B&A south of Glen Burnie, would be less expensive than building a new one, but is likely to encounter significant NIMBY opposition.
Other options are to put rail in the median of U.S. 50 (not so conducive to walkability, but less likely to face the ire of NIMBYs), or to extend the Blue Line east from Largo, paralleling Central Avenue and Riva Road or Solomons Island Road. Via this alignment, the rail distance from Metro Center to Annapolis is only 5 miles greater than the rail distance from Metro Center to Dulles Airport via the Orange and Silver Lines.
The Maryland DOT should seek federal assistance to study options for rail service roughly paralleling heavily-congested U.S. 50, which would better connect the Annapolis area with the job centers on the Washington-Baltimore corridor. Some form of rail transit serving these communities would be a wise investment in a future where rising travel demand and more expensive gasoline will lead people along this corridor to seek a better travel alternative — and the walkable communities that would come with it.
Special thanks to NARP Director Ken Briers for his research assistance.
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: annapolis, baltimore, bike trail, electrification, interurban rail, light rail, maryland, rail history, rail transit, washington dc,On Light Rail, Maryland Looks to Phoenix For What’s-to-Come
Monday, July 11, 2011
Updated: July 12, 10:30 am
In an effort to understand what residents along the Purple Line—a planned light rail system that will connect suburbs in Maryland—the Washington Post looked to the changes affected by a similar line in Phoenix, Arizona.
What Phoenix now offers — more reliable public transportation, another alternative to gas-guzzling vehicles, new development rejuvenating areas around stations — is what the Maryland Transit Administration envisions for a 16-mile Purple Line between Bethesda and New Carrollton. State planners have said they expect to be granted federal permission this summer to do more detailed engineering on the $1.93 billion project. It’s still unclear where construction money would come from.
The message of the July 9 story was clear: if the Purple Line is anything like Phoenix’s—and it should be, with Maryland officials employing the consulting firm used by the City of Phoenix, a firm that wowed with their attention to detail and passenger comfort—residents will love the train, but can expect significant growing pains.
Those pains include extended construction work that will inhibit movement along busy urban corridors, which will hurt businesses along the corridor. There is also a safety issue, with light rail cars sharing road with automobiles unused to their presence. Finally, there is the cost of the line itself; Maryland transportation officials estimate that in addition to the $1.93 billion construction and engineering costs, there will be an $18 million annual operating costs.
Critics view these factors as reasons enough not to have built the line, pointing to buses as a cheaper alternative.
The public has a far different story to tell about the line, however, praising its efficiency and on time performance while voicing hopes for extension of the line. That story is echoed in ridership figures, with the line averaging 39,000 per weekday—a figure which exceeds projections by 51 percent. And businesses along the corridor that were able to weather the hassle of construction have seen their property values shoot up and residential development return to once economically desolate areas. Phoenix transit officials have also been able to dramatically reduce fender-benders along the route through a coordinated public awareness campaign, cutting collisions from 52 in the first year of operation to 25 the following year.
Perhaps the most telling testimony comes from an official who was the biggest detractor of the Phoenix light rail line in the planning and construction phases.
Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman (R) said he initially objected to taxpayer subsidies for light rail. But he said he changed his mind after seeing the transformation of a dilapidated stretch between downtown Phoenix and Tempe. The city of Tempe had spent “tens of millions of dollars” over three decades trying to attract the kind of investment that the light rail line drew in just a few years, he said… “As a transportation investment,” Hallman said, “the payment back to the community pretty well takes care of the investment.”
Posted by NARP
Tags: economic development, light rail, maryland, phoenix, purple line, safety, transit,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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