Berkeley County joins Martinsburg in advocating for state MARC funding

MARTINSBURG, W.Va., — The Berkeley County Council adopted a resolution on Thursday urging the state Department of Transportation and Gov. Jim Justice’s office to recognize the importance of the MARC commuter train to the Eastern Panhandle and to fund “continued full-service operation of MARC service without diminution or delay as a state transportation priority.”

The county council’s unanimous 5-0 vote follows the adoption of similar resolutions by the Martinsburg City Council and the Berkeley County Development Authority since Maryland transportation officials announced a proposal to eliminate four of the six trains that currently serve Berkeley and Jefferson counties.

A public hearing on the proposed service changes for the Harpers Ferry, Duffields and Martinsburg stations is set for Sept. 7, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Charles Town (W.Va.) Public Library at 200 E. Washington St.

The county’s resolution highlights the importance of the MARC service to the region and state economy and transportation network.

“Doesn’t the MARC train reduce traffic on the road?” Berkeley County Council Vice President Dan Dulyea asked Del. Larry D. Kump, R-Berkeley/Morgan, in an informal discussion about the issue on Thursday.

Other concerns raised in the brief discussion were West Virginia’s lack of any “real say” over the management of the MARC train operation and the proposed cut of a transportation service for a workforce that is increasingly needed in the Washington, D.C., area, the nation’s fifth largest economy.

At the development authority’s regular board meeting earlier this month, Dulyea described the MARC service as being “vital” to Martinsburg’s future and ongoing efforts to revitalize the city’s economy.

Shane Farthing, Martinsburg’s economic and community development director, indicated earlier this month that prolonged uncertainty of the future of the MARC service over many years hasn’t helped the situation.

The West Virginia State Rail Authority is charged with coordinating the MARC operation in the Eastern Panhandle with the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA), according to state law.

The Commuter Rail Access Act, which became West Virginia law in 2013, states that “a commuter rail operation agreement shall provide for quantity and quality of commuter rail service, including certain minimum daily service at least equivalent to the level service on the effective date of the amendments to this subsection enacted in the Regular Session of the Legislature, 2013, unless daily ridership diminishes significantly from said date.”

In 2009, state lawmakers introduced resolutions asking for the governor’s assistance in securing MARC’s future use.

While the House and Senate concurrent resolutions failed to pass, they recounted Maryland’s move to charge West Virginia riders an additional $2 per trip aboard MARC in February 2009 given the neighboring state’s budgetary problems at the time.

The resolutions also noted that 550 state residents used MARC each weekday and that the residents contributed $40 million to the region’s economy as well as West Virginia as a whole.

The MTA said in June that total daily ridership via the Eastern Panhandle MARC stations averaged about 250 passengers eastbound toward Washington, D.C., in the morning hours and 250 westbound passengers in the evening.

The total ridership for the Eastern Panhandle Transit Authority’s (EPTA) bus-connector service from the Brunswick MARC train station to the Eastern Panhandle stations was more than 700 in both May and June, according to EPTA.

The MTA said earlier this month that it alerted the West Virginia State Rail Authority more than two years ago that it would need $3.4 million from West Virginia for fiscal 2019-20 for the MARC service.

The West Virginia legislature appropriated only $1.1 million, roughly a third of the stated need, for the MARC train service, the MTA noted.

Aside from the economic impact concerns, Farthing has taken issue with Maryland’s move to hold the public hearing regarding the MARC train service in Charles Town, questioning the accessibility of the meeting location for commuters, particularly those who possibly walk or use a bike to get to a train station.