Pennsylvania Station -- Baltimore Baltimore Pennsylvania Station (generally referred to as Penn Station) is the main transportation hub in Baltimore, Maryland. Designed by New York architect Kenneth MacKenzie Murchison (1872–1938), it was constructed in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style of architecture for the Pennsylvania Railroad. It is located at 1515 N. Charles Street, about a mile and a half north of downtown and the Inner Harbor, between the Mount Vernon neighborhood to the south, and Station North to the north. Originally called Union Station because it served the Pennsylvania Railroad and Western Maryland Railway, it was renamed to match other Pennsylvania Stations in 1928.[4] The building sits on a raised "island" of sorts between two open trenches, one for the Jones Falls Expressway and the other the tracks of the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The NEC approaches from the south through the two-track, 7,660-foot Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, which opened in 1873 and whose 30 mph limit, sharp curves, and steep grades make it one of the NEC's worst bottlenecks. The NEC's northern approach is the 1873 Union Tunnel, which has one single-track bore and one double-track bore. Penn Station is the eighth-busiest rail station in the United States by number of passengers served each year Services The station is the northern terminus of the Baltimore Light RailLink's Penn-Camden shuttle, connecting the Mount Vernon neighborhood with downtown; the southern terminus is Baltimore's Camden Station. It is also a major station on MARC's Penn Line, a commuter service to Washington. Most Pen Line trains terminate here, with some continuing to Martin State Airport or Perryville. Amtrak owns the station, which serves nine of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor services. Acela Express and Northeast Regional trains from Penn Station serve destinations along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. Some Regional trains from the station continue into Virginia and serve Alexandria, Newport News, Norfolk, Roanoke, and points in between. Other long-distance trains from the station serve: In the 1970s and 1980s, Amtrak also offered service to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Missouri, and Atlantic City, New Jersey. Before Amtrak's creation on May 1, 1971, Penn Station served as the main Baltimore station for its original owner, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), though passenger trains of the Western Maryland Railway also used Penn Station as well. It was also served by numerous PRR commuter trains to Washington, the ancestor of the MARC Penn Line. Until the late 1960s, the PRR operated long-distance trains over its historic Northern Central Railway line from Penn Station to Harrisburg and beyond, such as "The General" to Chicago, the "Spirit of St. Louis" to its Missouri namesake, and the "Buffalo Day Express" and overnight "Northern Express" between Washington, DC, and Buffalo, New York. As late as 1956, this route also hosted the "Liberty Limited" to Chicago and the "Dominion Limited" to Toronto, Canada. The Baltimore Light Rail now operates over much of the Northern Central Railway's right of way in Baltimore and Baltimore County; however, the spur connecting Penn Station to this right of way is not the route originally taken by Northern Central trains. Baltimore Light Rail service began in 1997. As part of the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project, the station was restored to its 1911 appearance in 1984. The station's use as a Western Maryland station stop allowed passengers from Penn Station to ride directly to various Maryland towns such as Westminster, Hagerstown, and Cumberland. Passenger service on the Western Maryland ended in 1958. Baltimore Penn Station is also used for MARC train storage during the weekends and overnight via off-peak service times on tracks 1, 3, 5, and F. Developments Around Station Several proposals have been made to convert the upper floors of the station into a hotel. Proposals from 2001 and 2006 were announced and never completed. In 2009, Amtrak reached an agreement with a developer for a 77-room hotel to be called The Inn at Penn Station. This project stalled along with many other hotel proposals in Baltimore. An agreement was announced in April 2019 for the development of a transit-oriented hub of apartments, shops, offices and a hotel by private parties while Amtrak would lease them the land around the station while making improvements to the station and tracks. Amtrak describes the plan as creating a premier regional transportation hub to accommodate passenger growth as the next generation of high-speed Acela Express trains start running along the Northeast Corridor in 2021

• published: 11 Jun 2019
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