Commuting from Baltimore to DC

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I am looking to hear from any of you that commute (or who have spouses that commute) from Baltimore City to DC for work. My husband and I are discussing moving to Baltimore (where I grew up), probably to the Roland Park area. He would keep his job in DC, and I would stay at home with our boys. I have a very strong network of family and friends there, and great support system etc. We both love the homes in the area, and love what we can get for our money. The real concern is the commute. My husband would drive to the Marc train and then metro to his job from Union station. It certainly doesn't sound great. Is it worth it? For those of you that do it, please share with us your pros and cons, advice etc. Thanks for your thoughts!

[Anonymous]

Sounds a lot better than driving. When I read the title of the post, that's what I thought you meant. I think he would be in good company taking the train to DC and back. Would his company help pay for commuting costs (tickets, parking, etc)?

[Anonymous]

How long would we be on metro? How far to drive to the marc? My colleague does this commute and really the marc train is the easiest part. It's not that bad. But if you're then going to be on metro for a while, that kind of sucks.

[Anonymous]

You may want to try it for a week or two and see how it goes. Go stay with relatives in Charm City and have him commute to his job every day and see how that works out. Generally, MARC trains are quite reliable. I had a boss who took the MARC in from West Virginia every day. He said he just slept most of the way in.

[Anonymous]

My friend Kevin does that every day and has for years. He seems fine with it and never complains about his commute, though he is single and child-free so it might be a longer commute than your husband would want.
(he also works at union station so he doesn't have to metro.)

[Anonymous]

OP here, no they wouldn't cover any costs. We would live very close to the train in baltimore, a 10 min drive - The total turn around door to door could be close to 1hr 30 min - 40 min. (driving to penn station 10 min, parking/waiting 10 min, 50 min marc train, metro 12 min, walk to work 10 min)...

The worst will probably be once he gets to union station. If he worked closer, it would be easier. But the down time on the Marc might be nice?

[Anonymous]

It's been many years since I lived in Baltimore (Charles Village), but I recently had to check on a few things on commuting. Depending on where you live in Roland Park, if you husband can walk down to the the Johns Hopkins University campus, they have a shuttle that runs from the Homewood campus down to the medical school campus and it stops at Penn Station. It used to be once an hour with a few extra during morning and evening commutes. The shuttle now seems to run all the time. It's like 15 minutes between shuttles for most of the day: http://www.parking.jhu.edu/HomewoodJHMIOctober2012Schedule.pdf.

So, he can walk to Homewood, take the shuttle down to Penn Station, take the Marc from Penn Station to Union Station and the metro from Union Station to work. It's long but it's done by many people daily. And it beats driving hands down. Using this system, he can read the paper, work on a laptop, do work, read, etc on the train. Currently Marc does not have WiFi, but both Baltimore Penn and Union stations do. So if he works on email off-line, he can send them at both of those stops.

[Anonymous]

Oh one other thing to check (the reason to do some test runs) is if he'll get a seat on the MARC. For example if his station is the last one out of B'more towards DC, then maybe the train is full by the time he gets on. Standing for that long may be annoying if it's every day. I am stuck standing on Metro pretty much any time I commute during rush hour, but I don't have to travel that many stops so it's bearable.

[Anonymous]

You commuters are crazy! Get a job in Baltimore.

[Anonymous]

I've been riding the MARC to and from B'more a lot recently, and I've been struck by the fact that there are always tons of free seats. I rarely even have to share a row and have never been without a seat, and that's with only have the train cars open. It's one of the few good side effects of the economic devastation that is Baltimore City (except RP).

Among friends who have been doing that commute for a long time, the big complaint is the summer months when the tracks buckle and you can get stuck on a MARC train for hours in the blazing heat with no AC.

[Anonymous]

We lived in Baltimore for many years and when my dh got a job here, I didn't entertain the notion of the Baltimore-> DC commute for one second! Instead, we moved to DC, and I commuted back to Baltimore for 1.5 yr. (I had (and our fondness of Baltimore), we have certainly entertained the possibility of moving back there, and him taking on this commute and me staying home or getting a job there. In the end, we decided against it. I think he would be miserable and I would feel like a single mom (but you say you have family there...). That said, I have a colleague who does the commute by car. She works from 7-3 and from home 1 day/wk. Her husband does all the morning kid duty. Do let us know what you decide and how it turns out.

[Anonymous]

I'm in Baltimore (Charles Village area) and did the commute for 2 days a week for about 9 months. (MARC train to Union Station, then metro to Silver Spring.) It's doable, but it's a long day, especially if you are doing it 5 days a week. Roland Park is a nice area, but would you ever consider Bolton Hill or something closer to the train station? For what it's worth, I know many many people who do it.

For the most park, MARC was extremely reliable, and I got a seat about 95% of the time. (Coming home is when the seating gets tough.)

[Anonymous]

My coworker used to do that exact commute, and she finally broke down and moved back to Bowie. I suppose it depends on your husband's temperament, but she had a lot of frustration with late or broken-down trains, no air-conditioning, call-phone-talkers in the quiet car, people eating nasty McDonald's food all up in her space. It sounded awful to this introvert.

[Anonymous]

I have a lot of colleagues who take the MARC from Baltimore to Union Station. But...our office is near Union Station. Add in a metro commute, particularly line switches, and the commute suddenly gets really awful.

OP, where exactly is your husband's job?

[Anonymous]

Oops, my post got garbled. Supposed to read:

quote=Anonymous]We lived in Baltimore for many years and when my dh got a job here, I didn't entertain the notion of the Baltimore-> DC commute for one second! Instead, we moved to DC, and I commuted back to Baltimore for 1.5 yr. (I had a very flexible position). Given the real estate markets (and our fondness of Baltimore), we have certainly entertained the possibility of moving back there, and him taking on this commute and me staying home or getting a job there. In the end, we decided against it. I think he would be miserable and I would feel like a single mom (but you say you have family there...). That said, I have a colleague who does the commute by car. She works from 7-3 and from home 1 day/wk. Her husband does all the morning kid duty. Do let us know what you decide and how it turns out.