(The following story by Taryn Luntz appeared on The Examiner website on July 28.)
WASHINGTON — More than one out of every four MARC commuter trains ran behind schedule in June — a dismal rate that has prompted the head of the system to send a letter apologizing for the “anxiety, frustration and inconvenience” the delays caused riders.
“For the past six weeks on-time performance has fallen far below what customers expect or deserve,” Maryland Transit Administration chief Paul J. Wiedefeld wrote in a recent e-mail to riders. “We are taking immediate corrective steps to regain your confidence in us.”
The situation is similar on its Virginia counterpart, the Virginia Railway Express, which on-time performance dipping to 73 percent in June.
The frequent delays are frustrating commuters who depend on the lines to get them to work on time, and home at a decent hour.
Peter Rynberk, a lawyer who commutes on the Brunswick line from Martinsburg, W.Va., said he wishes MARC would stick to the schedule times it prints.
“Even at the best day, they’re usually late at some point on the line,” he said.
On-time performance dipped to 63 percent on MARC’s Camden Line, which runs between Baltimore and Washington, and on the Brunswick Line, which extends to Western Maryland and West Virginia.
Rynberk expressed skepticism at this figure, which he said was “certainly not true” for rush hours.
“For the bulk of people riding to work in the morning and the afternoon, that 63 percent is a gift,” he said.
MARC’s popular Penn Line, which runs between Perryvile and Washington by way of Penn Station, saw on-time trains only 74 percent of the time in June.
The percentages are the system’s lowest by far over the past year. MARC’s overall on-time performance reached 91 percent in July 2007 and hovered in the mid-80s and low 90s until last month, statistics show.
They also come at a time when high gas prices are fueling a ridership surge.
Wiedefeld said the June delays were the result of a series of factors: Electric locomotives were undergoing scheduled maintenance, forcing MARC officials to rely on older diesel ones; an overturned fuel tanker on Interstate 95 closed the Camden Line; high temperatures and severe storms resulted in power outages and tree-blocked tracks, and the system experienced “persistent reliability problems” with its newest electric locomotives.
Wiedefeld said MARC officials are reviewing each incident with Amtrak and CSX Transportation, which own the lines MARC operates, and are working with Amtrak to improve the performance of the new electric locomotives.
Because MARC shares the lines with Amtrak trains and CSX freight trains, delays on those systems affect the commuter line.
Steve Dunham, chairman of the nonprofit Virginia Association of Railway Patrons and a regular train commuter, said VRE’s on-time performance is “better than it was a year ago,” with fewer overall delays.
And with high gas prices, he said riders appear less deterred by the delays that do happen. To illustrate his point, he cited a situation last week in which VRE told commuters that, due to a dispatching problem, it didn’t know when trains out of Fredericksburg would get moving, and suggested they “seek alternative transportation.” It turned out to be a nearly two-hour delay.
“I noticed there were an awful lot of people staying put on the platform, even though we had no idea when the train would be leaving for Washington,” he said. “In the past, people were quicker to flee when VRE said it had no idea when the train would be departing.”
VRE spokesman Mark Roeber said officials aim for 88 to 90 percent on-time performance but that, much like MARC, VRE is also at the mercy of CSX and Amtrak.
Roeber said 58 of VRE’s delays in June — when ridership was up 10 percent from a year earlier — were the result of storms, weather-related signal issues or high temperatures that force the system to slow trains by 20 miles per hour.
“Weather was absolutely the issue here,” Roeber said. “Add to that 64 train interference delays, and you see where and why the on-time performance for this month was off.”
A heat-related signal problem prompted VRE to cancel seven trains last week, but at 81 percent, the system’s July on-time performance is still outpacing June’s.
MARC also has recovered somewhat in July. Statistics show its lines are running on time 82 percent of the time this month.