Originally Posted by cptlflyer
BWI is an EASY trip from Downtown Washington using MARC... or, at the very least, anyone who uses the METRO in DC will appreciate that a METRO link would certainly not be faster or easier!!!!!!!
Originally Posted by CrazyOne
It might get easier, I suppose, if the station were right at the terminal. You could get to downtown DC without changing modes of transport. (Existing options both require a bus to the train.) And maybe it would have more frequency. But it wouldn't get faster certainly.
Originally Posted by CrazyOne
They already run a free shuttle bus to the BWI Rail Station. It's not that far at all. Actually, something I ran into last night (don't know where) mentioned plans to run a "monorail" (that was the word they used) to the rail station from the terminal. I don't know if that's still in the works or not. The station is really just across the road and south a bit, no farther away than some of the satellite parking.
Having some sort of rail link to the station might cut the time to get over there vs the shuttle bus, but that isn't the real weak link in this chain anyway. The weak link right now in getting to DC is the MARC train service, which at many times of day is only once an hour down to Union Station and doesn't run on weekends or holidays at all.
A bit of thought put into the MARC stuff would probably result in a much more useful link without building anything new. Example: why not have dedicated trains that run an express BWI-Union Station back and forth?
Last September I enjoyed the free shuttle bus from and to BWI, and the Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) train service to and from Union Station -- fortunately not travelling on a weekend.
I agree that implementing weekend MARC service, and adding BWI express trains, would improve matters. Perhaps BWI should consider subsidizing such additional trains.
In the meantime, extending the Metro to IAD should have a higher priority than BWI.