Since Monday, September 28, a MARC train leaves Brunswick at 6:00 a.m. on weekdays and reaches Baltimore's Camden Station at 7:59 without a transfer in Washington. The Maryland Transit Administration says it runs the service "without additional annual operating costs" by adjusting trains that already existed. The Baltimore train was built out of time taken from the Washington schedule. If you ride the Brunswick Line to Union Station and haven't checked a timetable in a few weeks, your train may have moved.
The run-through, stop by stop
Train 830 leaves Brunswick Station at 100 S. Maple Ave. at 6:00 a.m. and Point of Rocks at 6:11. It then makes the familiar Montgomery County stops: Barnesville 6:22, Germantown 6:31, Metropolitan Grove 6:36, Gaithersburg 6:41, Rockville 6:48, Kensington 6:55 and Silver Spring 7:02. After Silver Spring it skips Union Station, crosses onto the Camden Line, and stops at College Park at 7:17 and Laurel at 7:30 before arriving at Camden at 7:59.
The return trip, train 831, leaves Camden at 5:00 p.m. It reaches Point of Rocks at 6:46 and Brunswick at 7:05. That's one train each way, every weekday.
The Frederick News-Post covered the first morning and gave a sense of the baseline. One commuter told the paper he usually drives 90 minutes to work. A rider described an old routine: reach the Brunswick platform by 6:30 a.m., get to Union Station around 8:10, catch an 8:25 train north, and walk into Baltimore's Penn Station at 9:20. That's close to three hours. The run-through takes just under two. The Baltimore Banner put the full Brunswick-to-Camden trip at roughly two hours, about the same as driving. Shorter rides like Rockville or Silver Spring to Baltimore can beat the car, depending on traffic.
Frederick County gets the train's first two stops, but MTA's own time-savings examples are all Montgomery County trips. Silver Spring to Camden drops from 118 minutes to 57. Germantown to College Park goes from 90 to 46. Gaithersburg to Camden falls from 137 to 78. Brunswick and Point of Rocks are where the train starts, and the trains Frederick County already relied on are where its minutes came from.
Where the minutes came from
MTA's Brunswick Line change notice lists exactly which trains moved to make room. Trains 870, 890, 872, 894 and 880 kept their times in the morning. Three others shifted, and two evening trains out of Union Station left earlier.
| Train | What changed on Sept. 28 | Departure now | Departure before |
|---|---|---|---|
| 874, morning to DC | 15 minutes later, adds Boyds and Garrett Park | Brunswick 6:23 a.m., Union Station 8:00 | Brunswick about 6:08, Union Station about 7:45 |
| 878, morning to DC | 10 minutes earlier | Brunswick 6:57 a.m., Union Station 8:25 | Brunswick about 7:07, Union Station about 8:35 |
| 892, morning from Frederick | 17 minutes later, adds Washington Grove | Frederick 6:22 a.m., Union Station 8:15 | Frederick 6:05, Union Station about 7:58 |
| 893, evening to Frederick | 25 minutes earlier, adds Washington Grove | Union Station 4:55 p.m. | Union Station 5:20 |
| 879, evening to Brunswick | 20 minutes earlier | Union Station 5:20 p.m. | Union Station 5:40 |
MTA's notice gives the size of each shift but doesn't reprint the old station times. The "before" times for Brunswick and the Union Station arrivals in the table are worked backward from the current timetable using those published shifts.
Look at 874. It used to pull out of Brunswick around 6:08, a few minutes after today's 6:00 departure. That slot now belongs to the Baltimore train, and 874 moved to 6:23. A DC commuter who caught the early-six train now has two direct Union Station trains around that hour: 872 at 5:40, arriving at Union Station at 7:09, or 874 at 6:23, arriving at 8:00. MTA's notice also lists a transfer option. DC-bound riders who board 830 can switch to 874 or to Metrorail at Rockville, Silver Spring or College Park.
The Camden Line gave up a train too. Train 842, the 7:00 a.m. departure from Union Station to Baltimore, was replaced by the run-through. MARC points Washington riders to trains 840, 844 or 846, or to a Metro transfer.
The evening change lands hardest on Frederick riders
Frederick has no direct stop on the run-through, but the Frederick branch's evening schedule changed the most. Train 893 used to leave Union Station at 5:20 p.m. It now leaves at 4:55. The remaining Frederick-bound departures are 891 at 3:45 p.m. and 895 at 6:40. If you work until 5:00 in the District, the next direct train home to Frederick is now 6:40. That's a gap of 1 hour and 45 minutes after the 4:55 leaves.
Brunswick's evening lineup out of Union Station now reads 873 at 3:30 p.m., 875 at 4:25, 879 at 5:20, 881 at 6:20 and 883 at 7:25. Train 879 moved from 5:40 into the 5:20 slot that 893 left behind.
That 5:20 slot came out of the planning process. Minutes from the July 16 MARC Riders Advisory Council meeting record a proposal to cut or change three to four afternoon trains to open a 5:40 p.m. path for through service. At the August 20 meeting, the council heard that the changes were approved and that rider feedback asking to keep a 5:20 p.m. Union Station departure had been accepted. The final notice is narrower than the July proposal. No Brunswick train is listed as dropped, and two departures moved earlier.
Getting to Point of Rocks from Frederick
Riders from Frederick reach the run-through by bus. Frederick Transit's Meet-the-MARC shuttle schedule, dated September 2026, adds connections built around trains 830 and 831. The morning pickups for 830:
- Frederick Shopping Center South, 5:33 a.m.
- Military Road at Fort Detrick, 5:35 a.m.
- Baughman's Lane at Walgreens, 5:38 a.m.
- Mt. Zion Road Park and Ride, 5:48 a.m.
- Arrives at Point of Rocks for the 6:11 a.m. train
In the evening, the bus meets 831 at Point of Rocks at 6:46 p.m. It stops at Mt. Zion at 7:13, the Transit Center at the Frederick MARC Station at 7:15, Frederick Shopping Center South at 7:23, Military Road at 7:25 and Baughman's Lane at 7:28. The same schedule lists Brunswick and Jefferson shuttles to Brunswick Station at 5:40 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. Riders heading on to Monocacy can transfer to TransIT's Route 20 Connector at the Transit Center.
Drivers have two free lots. MTA's parking page lists 675 spaces at Brunswick and 503 at Point of Rocks, and it names Point of Rocks among the lots that fill early. That page was last updated in April 2025. Parking also brings the run-through some riders from outside the county. The Frederick News-Post spoke with a rider who drove to Brunswick on opening day to ride to College Park. The rider said they couldn't park their car at the Baltimore station they had been using.
What the ride costs, and when the discount ends
A one-way Brunswick-to-Baltimore ticket normally costs $15, MARC's highest one-way fare on this run. MTA is taking $2 off every run-through fare for six months, from September 28 to March 28, which brings Brunswick to Camden down to $13. The Frederick News-Post found the two ticket channels showing different prices on launch day. CharmPass listed $13 one-way, $97.50 for a five-day pass and $130 for a seven-day pass. CommuterDirect.com showed $15, $112.50 and $150. A software problem kept some student-discount tickets from working on the first day. An MTA spokesperson told the paper it has been fixed.
Before the launch, The Baltimore Banner reported that MTA's public dashboard doesn't break out ridership by MARC line. Through July 2026, the three MARC lines together averaged about 14,900 daily boardings. The Riders Advisory Council's next meeting is Thursday, October 15, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m., and it's the first scheduled since the launch. Comments on the new times go to MARC at [email protected]. The current timetables are posted on MTA's Brunswick-Camden page.
Homes near Brunswick and Point of Rocks now sit at the start of the only direct weekday rail trip from Frederick County to Baltimore. If you're thinking about selling, Travis Fogle and the Coastal Realm Northeast team turn around a same-day valuation that reflects what your location offers commuters this fall. Get My Valuation.
