Baltimore
Martin State Airport is perhaps the most unique station, in terms of how passengers board trains on the Northeast Corridor. The station doesn't have a proper platform but instead there are three wooden boarding crossings, serving all four tracks of the Northeast Corridor with low-level boarding. The station is not accessible. The unique platform situation is too dangerous and complicated to have a mobile-lift available. The end of the three wooden boarding crossings leads past tactile yellow warning strips along the southernmost track to 3 separate narrower wooden boardwalks. Safety signs at the edge of the little platforms at end of the boardwalks say “Caution: Do Not Stand on Crosswalk Until Train Has Stopped and Your Protected by Train Crew.”
These boardwalks lead a short distance across a ditch to a sidewalk with grass on both sides. This sidewalk loops around to the stations parking lot just beyond with some grass in-between. Set directly back from each boardwalk on each side of a further direct sidewalk to the parking lot are blue bus shelters with angled roofs and benches for waiting passengers. There are six total shelters, two by each boardwalk.
These non-platforms lead out to a 320-space parking lot. Along the edge of the parking lot, just south of the station boarding crosswalks is the station's modular blue station house. Inside is a very simple waiting room with a couple of red benches along with restrooms and a water fountain. There is also a ticket vending machine. Since the station building is modular the entrance isn't at ground level with six steps and a ramp at the opposite end lead up and into the building.
The parking lot has a single entrance to and from Eastern Blvd at a non-signalized intersection. White Marsh Blvd that crosses over the railroad line is just west of the parking lot. MTA Maryland Bus Route 59 provides connections to the station infrequently and less than every hour. The westbound bus stops right at the station entrance, the eastbound bus stop requires walking to White Marsh Blvd to cross Eastern Blvd. The airport the station is named after is directly across Eastern Blvd. It is used by General Aviation and the Maryland Air National Guard.
Train service to Martin State Airport has its own unique schedule compared to service between Baltimore and Washington DC and “Susquehanna Flyer” service that extends north to Perryville. This is because MARC has a storage yard and the Martins Maintenance Facility just north of the station. This facility is primarily located across White Marsh Blvd north of the station. Two tail storage tracks cross under the White Marsh Blvd bridge before ending at bumper blocks just north of the parking lot. The train yard is not electrified so all trains that enter or leave service to and from this yard operate with diesel locomotives under the catenary wire. The yard is exclusively accessed from the northbound directions so trains arriving in the yard after terminating at the station must continue north of the station before changing direction and “backing in” to enter the yard.
Train service to the station on weekdays consists of the seven outbound to Perryville, and six inbound returning from Perryville trains stopping at the station. There is also one additional train that originates at the station at 5:30am in the morning before terminating in Baltimore at 5:46am, and one evening 3:35pm train that originates at the station. Four weekday trains terminate at Martin State Airport, two are reverse-peak trains from Washington, DC that arrive at 9:26am and 9:46am (when I visited the station one didn't even stop and continued straight to the train yad since I assume no passengers were getting off), plus a 5:58pm and 7:31pm arrival.
The station does receive service on weekends only to and from Washington. There three roundtrips on Saturdays and two on Sundays. These trains all the station in the morning (plus one 2:37pm departure on Saturday afternoon) and return between 5:02pm and 12:22am the following morning.
Photos 1-96: September 4, 2024;
