Halethorpe

train go vroooooom. great station btw, plenty of parking.

The Penn Line will take you to DC. Or a bus from a bus stop just outside the station will take you to Baltimore, Towson or Pikesville - Depending on where you want to go. Parking outside where you can leave your car for a day's work.nnIt's a nice and quiet station. Barring the odd rush hour, it's generally empty. I've never felt unsafe here. There is an occasional homeless person come by. But nothing to worry about if you're alone.

For the most part Penn line runs on time and the frequency during rush hours makes it easy to catch a train. I've also used it on the weekend to attend events in DC.nI have a TLC card from work which allows unlimited travel for $306 a month.

Good: It's pretty clean. Sometimes I see overflowing trashcans or a few pieces of litter in the elevator or on the platform. But overall, it's pretty tidy. It also feels relatively safe. Although I try and stay vigilant regardless, I've never felt the need to constantly look over my shoulder while I'm there. They also recently resurfaced the main parking lot, so driving around there is a lot smoother. As to the bad, I see quite a few things:nnBad: They don't have enough parking spaces. Mondays and Fridays are the best parking days there, probably because those are the most popular days for folks who have flexible schedules or telecommute. Tuesday to Thursday you're lucky to get a space on the lot. It will easily fill up before 7 AM. If you can't get on the main lot, you're stuck parking on Southwestern Blvd (and people park practically up to the fire station), Tom Day Blvd, or Oregon Ave, all of which is ridiculous and at times unsafe. They have a smaller overflow lot directly across the street on Southwestern Blvd. However, after 7 AM it also fills up pretty quickly. It's also poorly lit and is in desperate need of resurfacing, because its hard to see where the parking spaces are. I also don't like how they have dedicated quite a few spaces for those Zip Cars (at least on the overflow lot). You don't see enough people use those spaces to warrant the amount of Zip Car spots they have there.They need to figure out a way to add more spaces, particularly since the surrounding community is growing. At the very least, it needs a low- or mid-rise garage. You shouldn't have to walk the length of a football field just to get from your car to the station and back. Regarding the parking safety issue previously mentioned, it mainly has to do with folks forced to park across the street either at the overflow lot or elsewhere. If you're across the street and need to get to the station (or vice versa), you have to cross Southwestern Blvd. There are crosswalks and a few signs that warn oncoming traffic of pedestrians, but there are no stop lights or signals that regulate the speed and flow of traffic near the station. Therefore, pedestrians who need to cross the street are at the mercy of drivers who sometimes don't respect traffic laws or pedestrians. I always use the crosswalks when trying to cross the street at Southwestern, and at least 3 times I have almost been hit by a car while there because the driver was too impatient to wait a few seconds so I could cross the road safely. I've also seen bumper-to-bumper collisions between other cars, because there are no traffic lights in front of the station. So a car comes barreling down Southwestern, doesn't pay attention to the car stopped for a pedestrian, and an accident happens. I've seen that happen twice. I'm sure its happened more often than that. If they can't regulate traffic in front of the station, they need to construct a sky way or foot bridge so pedestrians crossing Southwestern Blvd to the station and back can do so safely. But given the reactive nature of bureaucracy, I don't see something like that happening unless and until someone gets hit by a car and then sues MARC, the county and/or the State.nnAlso, there's one elevator on each platform. If it's not working (particularly the one on the northbound side), you may have to climb between 6-8 flights of steps, cross a skywalk, and walk 6-8 flights back down just to get to the platform or street. That's insane, particularly if you're disabled. I've literally received alert messages from MTA whenever an elevator is out at Halethorpe telling its disabled commuters not to come to the station or to take BWI instead. And although the platform has overhead covering, it would be nice if they could enclose it with plexiglass for added protection. During that polar vortex we had, it was too cold to wait on the platform, so most people waited in the skyway or inside the elevator because those are literally the only enclosed places at the station. It also could use more platform seating, as each side only has 2 benches.

The trains are always late. Marc needs to do better with there services. They always going up on price but poor service