Amtrak releases renderings of future West Baltimore MARC station with Red Line connections

Dillon Mullan, Baltimore Sun
·2 min read
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Amtrak published renderings Thursday of a new West Baltimore MARC station that officials hope will be a hub of modern Maryland transit in the not-so-distant future.

“This is the next step in creating an interconnected transit hub for the West Baltimore community which will provide access to the local bus network, MARC trains, and the future Red Line light rail line,” Maryland Transit Administrator Holly Arnold said in a news release.

Amtrak said the release that the station is expected to be completed by 2035. Upgrades include elevators and platforms aligned with the Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirement, bus and light rail connections, public art, and widened, protected and illuminated sidewalks.

Gov. Wes Moore last month announced light rail as the mode of transit for the new Red Line to connect East and West Baltimore, but that construction will take nine to 12 years. The route, which has yet to be finalized, is expected to start in Baltimore County near Woodlawn before passing into West Baltimore. The Maryland Transit Administration contracts with Amtrak to operate MARC trains.

Construction of the new station on Franklin Street in the Penrose/Fayette Street Outreach neighborhood is part of Amtrak’s broader Frederick Douglass Tunnel Program, which has been estimated to cost $6 billion. The rail company is replacing the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, which passes beneath the Bolton Hill, Upton and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods.

The Reservoir Hill Association, a West Baltimore neighborhood group, with the help of New York University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic, filed a complaint this spring with the U.S. Department of Transportation over the project.

The complaint alleges racial discrimination by Amtrak in how the rail company chose to construct the new tunnel through the Reservoir Hill, Penn North, Sandtown-Winchester, Bridgeview/Greenlawn, Midtown-Edmondson and Penrose/Fayette neighborhoods. According to Amtrak records, the three finalist routes considered all passed through those same West Baltimore neighborhoods, and, according to court records, Amtrak has been buying West Baltimore properties along the tunnel route as well as their subsurface construction rights through eminent domain.

Amtrak will host an open house about the project Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Mary Ann Winterling Elementary School, a few blocks from the West Baltimore MARC station.