MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — With decreases in service just weeks away, time is running short for area leaders to find a fix to the MARC funding impasse.
The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) has asked the state of West Virginia to contribute 3.2 million dollars to keep the trains running into the Panhandle, but so far the state legislature has pledged less than half of that.
That means municipalities and counties may have to kick in some of the funds. The MTA has cited the funding issues and declining ridership as reasons behind their move to decrease the number of trains into and out of the Panhandle come November.
Dan Dulyea is a Berkeley County council member. He said an MTA official told him why the official count might be low.
“There’s no way you can only have 237 people a day riding the train when the Transit Authority hauls that many back from Boonsboro (Maryland) every day. He said, ‘Well, you know, that’s a long story.’ I said, ‘What do you mean it’s a long story?’ He said, ‘Well, it just happened that that day fell on a day when the federal government was closed.'”
Dulyea added he is hoping to sit down with area municipal leaders and the MTA in the near term to come to an agreement that will maintain MARC’s current service levels.
Area delegates conducted their own ridership head count last week and said ridership numbers were much higher than MTA’s numbers.
Dulyea was a guest on Friday’s Panhandle Live, heard on WEPM & WCST weekday mornings at 9:06.
Story by Marsha Chwalik/Panhandle News Network