Seabrook
Bowie State University opened on February 27, 1989. This station replaced the previous station at Bowie in the center of this town that had limited parking. The original Bowie Station buildings, a shelter, tower, and freight station, are still there, just no longer as an active train station and part of the Bowie Railroad Museum.
The new station consists of two 250-foot-long high-level platforms for the three track Northeast Corridor. These platforms begin just north of the bridge across the Northeast Corridor of the Laurel-Bowie Road that’s more of a highway and lacks sidewalks.
These platforms can only accommodate approximately 3 train cars, so passengers need to generally be at the Washington-bound end of all trains to get on and off. At the front of the Washington-bound platform steps lead down to a wooden crossing to allow a train to stop on the middle track by opening one train door. The start of this staircase has a chain and a sign that states "Attention Marc Passengers: STOP Passengers must remain on the high-level concrete platform until after the train arrives and the conductor directs you to descend the stairs to access the middle track."
The station's simple concrete platforms each contain very simple amenities for waiting passengers. There are two small (6 panes of glass wide) shelters on the Baltimore-bound platform) and one (15 panes of glass wide) shelter on the Washington-bound platform. These aren't the blue color of the shelters at other Marc stations, instead they are black with a gold trimline just below the roof and yellow built in benches. This color scheme extends to the simple railings along the platforms, staircases and pedestrian tunnel black for the top rung, and gold for the middle rung. These are the colors of Bowie State University. Maryland's oldest Historically Black University, and part of the University System of Maryland.
The platforms are connected by a pedestrian tunnel this tunnel has a circular shape with the same black and gold railings along it. The walls of the tunnel are painted white with a gold trimline. There is a single staircase up, directly to each side platform. Ramps provide access to each platform from the tunnel, making the station accessible. These ramps switchback in different ways depending upon the platform.
The Washington-bound platform has a single entrance area (other than the staircase up from the tunnel) towards its southern end. Here is the start of its ramp that runs the entire remaining length of the platform before switch backing under it. Just behind the ramp are three steps and another much shorter ramp down to the station's parking lot that is set back from this platform by some trees (and the ramp that slowly looping around the platform as it switchbacks to reach the level of the tunnel). This parking lot contains slightly more than half of the station's 675 free parking spaces and has a single entrance at the end of Jericho Park Road that enters the parking lot to end just beyond the entrance of Lemons Bridge Road.
The Baltimore-bound side of the station's ramp does the same thing, switchbacking under the northern end of the platform before splitting into two ramps, one leads directly back from the platform to an entrance at the station 's access road. The other turns alongside the platform arriving at ground-level near the middle of the platform by the one staircase to leave the platform. In this area the station has a single, just out to the open Ticket Vending Machine. The staircase has twelve steps down to the stations entrance area. The ramp continues parallel to the Baltimore-bound platform arriving at platform-level via one more switchback, arriving just before the platform's staircase.
The two entrance areas from the Baltimore-bound platform lead to short paths back to an odd dead-end access road from Laurel-Bowie Road. This is followed by crosswalks to a sidewalk that is the platforms kiss & ride on the edge of this platform's parking lot. The parking lot has lots of signs saying "No BSU Student Parking: MARC Daily Patrons Parking Only-All Violators Will Be Ticketed-Towed at Owners Expense".
Access to BSU's campus is easy with a sidewalk directly into campus from the northern end of this parking lot. The main circle of campus provides the closest bus connections to the station, with WMATA buses stopping along Henry Circle about a quarter-mile from the station platforms. This platform's parking lot is accessed from where Loop Road curves off of another section of Jericho Park Road.
Photos 1-60: October 1, 2024;
