M Route Bus Will Get New Schedule on Jan. 3
Operators made adjustments to the schedule of the Piney Orchard MARC shuttle after realizing the schedule did not mesh well with train arrival and departure times. There will be earlier morning trips and more service overall.
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The M Route bus that circulates from Piney Orchard to the Odenton MARC station will be getting a new schedule on Jan. 3, featuring earlier service in the morning and more trips overall.
Riders will have 10 opportunities to catch the bus each weekday morning, up from six under the current schedule. Service will begin before 5 a.m., with the first bus leaving the intersection of Waugh Chapel Road and Casuarina Way at 4:40 a.m. and arriving at the MARC Station at 4:55 a.m.
The last morning bus will arrive at the MARC station at 8:21 a.m., about 40 minutes earlier than the final stop under the current schedule.
In the afternoon, the number of trips will increase from six to seven.
The changes to the schedule come after residents voiced concerns that the bus schedule was not often in sync with that of MARC train, leaving passengers to wait for as long as 30 minutes at the train station.
County planners and officials from Central Maryland Regional Transit, which operates the bus, acknowledged last month that they had not updated the schedule to accomodate recent changes to the MARC train service.
These new changes to the bus schedule are designed to ensure more passengers catch the MARC train of their choice, and are also not forced to wait for the bus when arriving home in the evening.
The fare for the bus will remain $1 per ride.
Note: A link to a PDF of the schedule is attached.
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Tim Lemke
12:42 pm on Monday, December 19, 2011
Does this new schedule appear to be an improvement?
Diane Milleville
1:11 pm on Monday, December 19, 2011
considering how long it took them to adjust to a schedule that has been around since may (b/c the november changes were very minimal), i'm sure marc will change their schedule soon enough so this doesn't work. the bus service needs to adapt at exactly the same time as the train schedule in order for this service to be usable.
Peg Waters
2:13 pm on Monday, December 19, 2011
Diane, MARC did not communicate the changes to the bus service. That's why it was so slow to the schedule change. The bus service also has county red tape is has to go through in order to change it's schedule so unfortunately isn't not as easy to change things. I am sure they will watch for changes now that they know MARC won't share the info and be more on top of things.