Traffic

Current Schedule

A Typical Wednesday morning schedule on the Northeast Corridor southbound between Wilmington and Baltimore. MARC traffic, shown in red, is slower (steeper) than the Amtrak trains in blue. Most MARC trains wait to be overtaken at Baltimore Penn. Four timed overtakes occur using the limited opportunities on the three track stretch between Baltimore and New Carrollton.

Big speed differences between the slow MARC trains and faster Amtrak runs mean schedule delays anywhere cascade from MARC to Amtrak or Amtrak to MARC.

Future Schedule

With trip time reduced from over an hour down to 50 minutes, service can run 10-12 minutes all day. The number of third-track overtakes is actually cut in half. With 40 minute trip times there would be no need for any overtakes at all. Even with many more Bronze line trains running there is more breathing room for Amtrak trains and the entire line is less sensitive to disruption.