DoD begins encouraging transit for BRAC commuters

Transit

DoD begins encouraging transit for BRAC commuters

by Dave Murphy • July 25, 2011 12:07 pm

The Department of Defense is now promoting alternatives to to the more than 5,800 employees relocating to Fort Meade in August due to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) changes.

Odenton MARC station. Photo by thisisbossi on Flickr.

The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) headquarters is moving from the Pentagon in Virginia to Fort Meade in Maryland, and represents a substantial number of the relocated jobs. Unlike the the Pentagon, which is adjacent to Metro's Blue and Yellow lines and one of the largest bus hubs in Arlington, Fort Meade is nearly transit-inaccessible.

Approximately 25 MARC trains (PDF) on the Penn Line stop daily at nearby Odenton Station Monday through Friday. Several organizations on Fort Meade offer shuttle service from the station to their facilities, which are about two to five miles from the station.

Virginia-based DISA workers certainly have no reason to celebrate their commute being lengthened up to 30 miles each way due to the move. But the commute might not be as daunting as expected thanks to a couple of commuting options that DISA and other DoD Agencies are pushing to their employees.

For commuters who live near VRE stations, there is a cross honor agreement with MARC, allowing riders on inbound VRE trains a free transfer to outbound MARC trains.

If, for instance, riders are coming from Woodbridge and going to Fort Meade, they only need a ticket to Union Station, where they can then board an outbound MARC train to Odenton for free. This is still long commute with two transfers (VRE to MARC, MARC to shuttle), but with the federal mass transit subsidy recently being raised to $230 a month, it can be done for no additional money out-of-pocket.

For those who can get to Union Station via Metro or bus, MARC has the Transit Link Card (TLC). For $102 in addition to a MARC monthly pass ($125 for Union Station to Odenton), the TLC will offer unlimited monthly ridership on any service that accepts SmarTrip or Charm Cards.

The monthly cost for those going to Fort Meade via Odenton is $227, which again can be covered in full by the federal mass transit subsidy. Additionally, the TLC card can be used on weekends and holidays, making it fiscally advantageous for Fort Meade commuters to potentially give up their cars all together.

MARC's TLC can be used with Metro, Metrobus, DC Circulator, the future DC Streetcar, ART, CUE, DASH, Fairfax Connector, Loudon County Commuter Bus, OmniRide, Ride-On, TheBus, the Baltimore Subway and Light Rail, and any MTA bus. This connectivity makes it a highly viable option for Washington and Baltimore commuters to other BRAC sites, including Aberdeen Proving Grounds, which is also served by the MARC Penn Line.

~~Currently, MARC's TLC is the only way to get an unlimited use pass from Metro.~~ MARC's TLC is the only pass that allows unlimited rides on multiple modes. Non-MARC Metro riders can use rail and bus passes which are fairly limited; several have recommended creating more flexible passes.

Will these services prevent a traffic nightmare from occurring? Probably not. MARC service is limited and does not run on weekends, and many employees relocating from Virginia are probably not keen on 2-hour commutes with multiple mode shifts.

DISA's move to Fort Meade isolates the agency from DoD headquarters and other related agencies in DC, Arlington, and Alexandria, which in turn means more and longer commutes for meetings and conferences. This will also be the case with most agencies that are moving from the DC core to transit-poor exurbs in the BRAC as land in the city core sits undeveloped.

Nevertheless, the fact that the DoD is beginning to recognize the importance of mass transit's role in providing an efficient way for employees to reach their facilities is an important step in the right direction.

15 comments

Tags: BRAC, commuter rail, commuting, Fort Meade, MARC, Maryland, Virginia, VRE

Can MARC serve Fort Meade? (Jun 15, 2010)
The Metro Express (Feb 19, 2009)
MARC will run more, shorter trains (Jan 25, 2011)
Greater Baltimore & Washington Transit Future pocket version (Jun 12, 2008)
Is the federal transit benefit actually bad? (May 18, 2010)

Dave Murphy is a Geographic Analyst for the Department of Defense and a US Army veteran. He is also a part time bouncer. He was born in Foggy Bottom and is a lifelong resident of the DC area. He currently resides in the Eckington neighborhood of Northeast.

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"Currently, MARC's TLC is the only way to get an unlimited use pass from Metro."

Why doesn't WMATA offer this unlimited pass at the same price to Metrorail/Metrobus customers? If you have a long daily commute on WMATA, you could easily spend $202 in a month, which is what it would cost to get the cheapest monthly pass on MARC + TransitLink... I would jump on this in a second if it was available to me!

by AM on Jul 25, 2011 12:36 pm • link • report

As far as I can tell, there is nothing stopping someone from purchasing a monthly MARC pass from, say, Union Station to Silver Spring and getting a Transit Link Card with it, even if you never use the MARC train. Although I imagine the rules will change if that starts to happen in force.

by Dave Murphy on Jul 25, 2011 12:43 pm • link • report

BRAC is a disaster.

by Ronald Dumbsfeld on Jul 25, 2011 12:57 pm • link • report

@AM: what's wrong with buying four rail fast passes? They're $47 per week and offer unlimited metrorail.

by Michael Perkins on Jul 25, 2011 12:59 pm • link • report

There is a way to get an unlimited use pass from Metro. It's $62 per week and involves buying a weekly bus pass and a weekly rail pass. You lose any ability to make discounted transfers on bus and rail, and the rail pass does not work on Smartrip.

Thank you Dave for pointing out metrosmartpasses.org. I'm trying to fix the Metro passes system so that it makes more sense.

by Michael Perkins on Jul 25, 2011 1:05 pm • link • report

I've corrected the post.

by David Alpert on Jul 25, 2011 1:10 pm • link • report

@Michael

The TLC seems like a better deal compared to 2 passes as it includes Metrorail + Bus transfers for less and its a SmarTrip (I think?).

I'm not saying it's not possible to get an unlimited pass on Metro, just trying to point out that it seems odd that some commuters can get this pass but not others.

by AM on Jul 25, 2011 1:24 pm • link • report

@AM: I dug into this a little bit a while back and came back with the conclusion that there really isn't much of a formal agreement or any sort of accounting with regard to the Transit Link pass. I think the agreement is essentially that Metro agrees to honor the pass and MTA forwards the money to Metro.

Since it's only sold to people that already have a MARC pass, it's typically only used for very short trips or bus rides, and therefore $100 a month isn't a big money-loser for Metro. But I wasn't able to find any evidence that Metro spends much effort trying to figure out whether $102 is a money-making or money-losing price. It just is.

As far as the MARC monthly pass, you can get unlimited trips in a month for the price of 25 trips, at least for the short segment I checked. That's very good and reflects a transit administration that wants to encourage transit use.

The pass I am advocating is to have people pay for 40 times their typical trip and then get unlimited transit at that price or less for a month. Example is to pay $2.00 * 40 = $80.00 per month and get unlimited trips of $2.00 or less included in the pass for a month. Any more expensive trips, you pay the difference (e.g., a $2.50 trip taken with a $2.00 pass, and you pay the extra $0.50 as a one-time charge).

by Michael Perkins on Jul 25, 2011 1:51 pm • link • report

The DoD providing this service is MUCH better than The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Located a few miles from Ft. Meade, its the largest private employer in Howard County with almost 5000 employees. Mostly government contract work. They discourage public transportation, do not offer any car pooling incentives, no shuttle bus from the train station (like what DISA is doing), and there are no alternatives to get there by transit. The head of the laboratory even said that he has no intent to offer any help from the employer for public transportation. Yet they are having a parking problem, and building acres of more parking lots. They do not see the connection.

by NoTransitAPL on Jul 25, 2011 2:57 pm • link • report

This is great news for dc dwellers (and virginians) who work at ft meade- but the plan still lacks some finesse. Taking the commuter bus to ft meade after being on the rail is bothersome- and takes up a lot of time as far as commuting is concerned(being on that main road on a commuter bus, showing id, ect. takes SO MUCH TIME). Right now- there are no weekend or holiday hours from/to Odenton (I believe), so seeing this here is definitely something to look forward to- BUT- why can't someone in charge just make it easier on everyone and extend the MARC directly onto Ft Meade? It is possible with a bit of planning and annoying roadwork along the way, but it would make a world of difference. When is this going to happen?! Let's go!
Definitely things are going in the right direction though, so, it is at least something.

by hummingbird on Jul 25, 2011 9:15 pm • link • report

My concern is that my job requires me to travel by car between DC and the Maryland suburbs several times a day, every day. I'm a huge supporter for mass transit, in particular trains, but in my line of work that is not feasible.

That being said are there any plans to widen the B/W Parkway, which is already congested pre-BRAC? Perhaps a plan on widening on the condition that the Green Line extends to Fort Meade? If anyone has any information yes or no, please enlighten, because this move has the potential to make my job even more unbearable.

by BW Parkway Prisoner on Jul 26, 2011 7:33 am • link • report

As far as I know, there are no plans to widen the B/W Parkway. The Green Line extension has not been included in BRAC planning for Fort Meade, either. Some agencies are considering running shuttles to and from Greenbelt Metro Station, but as far as I can tell none of them have been started yet.

And for running MARC directly to Fort Meade, we had a post on that about a year ago:
http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/6164/can-marc-serve-fort-meade/
As far as this one is concerned, however, I have not seen it formally proposed anywhere.

by Dave Murphy on Jul 26, 2011 9:57 am • link • report

The thing about the MARC monthly pass that is disclosed but you have to read the fine print to find it is that it includes free use of MTA subway, bus, and light rail, WMATA bus (not the upcharge for BWI), and RideOn bus. It's pretty awesome.

by Richard Layman on Jul 26, 2011 11:26 am • link • report

FWIW, when BRAC changes were announced in 2005, I made all these kinds of points about the transit-transpo impact in a couple blog entries. Clearly the BRAC law wasn't written to take any responsibility for these changes.

WRT BW Parkway, no way will it get widened. It's a parkway run by the NPS, not a freeway.

by Richard Layman on Jul 26, 2011 11:27 am • link • report

I believe majority of the DISA employees moving to Fort Meade are/were based in Falls Church (Skyline/Columbia Pike), not the Pentagon. Since there was not much in the way of public transportation there, I imagine most drove to work and didn't take public transportation.

I also think that these DISA employees were offered re-location packages as part of the move to Fort Meade. So, while they could continue to live where they are and add 30 miles to their commute, they also could move on the government's dime.

by rogerwilco on Jul 26, 2011 6:12 pm • link • report