HAGERSTOWN, Md. — MARC commuter train service continues without change into West Virginia, even though a deadline for West Virginia to fund the service has passed, with a local legislator saying negotiations are continuing.
MARC’s Brunswick line from Washington, D.C., serves two West Virginia communities — Duffields and Martinsburg — even though West Virginia has never provided funding toward the service. This year, MARC asked for $3.4 million to continue the service, but West Virginia’s legislature passed legislation providing only $1.1 million. That led MARC to say it would cut the service from three round trips a day to one. [See “Hearing calls for preservation of commuter service into West Virginia,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 9, 2019.]
But, while a Nov. 30 deadline for full funding has passed, the current level of service has been maintained.
West Virginia legislator John Doyle told the Hagerstown Herald-Mail that negotiations are continuing between officials in the two states. “I think we’re almost there, at least to continue it for some years,” he said.
A number of local governments have agreed to contribute to funding the service, he said, and West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice has said the state will find the remainder of the needed funds.
West Virginia Public Broadcasting had previously reported that MARC said it would not change the level of service without “first issuing a 30-day notice.” No such notice has yet been posted.
I wish the State of Maryland cared as much for it’s citizens in Southern Maryland as they do for the citizens of West Virginia.
It is some time since I looked at a MARC schedule; I did note that the trains stopped just across the Potomac from Maryland–in Harpers Ferry.
I think it also stops in Harper’s Ferry, yes.
Article is incorrect. Three stops involved; missing Harpers Ferry.