Reinstate MARC Train Ten-Trip Ticket

To:  Department of Transportation: Maryland Transit Administration

We, the undersigned, hereby call upon the Maryland Transit Administration to reinstate the MARC Train Ten-Trip ticket as a valid and continued option for commuter travel throughout the state of Maryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The MARC Ten-Trip ticket has been an invaluable support for countless commuters who rely upon public transportation to ease the sting of a faltering economy and accommodate compressed work schedules. Employees, lawmakers, and students alike have utilized the ten-trip ticket as a means of transportation that is both flexible and financially feasible. This is particularly true for the copious number of federal employees who benefit from tediously long commutes and alternative work schedules that do not call for a daily presence at assigned duty stations.

The burdensome cost of the Ten-Trip ticket elimination is both unnecessary and unjust. Weekly and monthly MARC train tickets do not compensate for funds and benefits lost due to federal holidays, emergencies, vacation or sick time, work details requiring travel, facility closures due to weather, and numerous other incidents that will disallow commuters the opportunity to actively use services we are now being forced to purchase; neither do the inflation of one-way and round-trip tickets satisfy the outcry of commuters across the metropolitan region.

A three day work week easily yields a forty percent loss of benefits by way of weekly and monthly MARC train tickets – a two day work week, sixty percent. Commuters are now faced with the prospect of purchasing weekly/monthly passes – at our own expense, none-the-less – and sitting back absorbing the cost of benefits that we cannot and will not receive with the elimination of the ten-trip. In an economy as anemic as ours is now, this is unacceptable. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), the MARC Riders Advisory Council (“MRAC”), and a host of other individuals have formally stated their positions verbally and in writing on the adverse affects of the ten-trip elimination to no avail.

Realizing that cutbacks were necessary in some areas, we, the undersigned, feel strongly that the ten-trip was not one of them. We hereby express public outcry against the injustice being mandated by the Maryland Transit Administration, the unconcern for its loyal patrons, and civilly entreat said authority to reinstate the continued use of the MARC Train Ten-Trip ticket.

(The links to text of formally submitted complaint letters can be found below)

http://www.marcriders.com/MRACLetter.pdf
http://capito.house.gov/list/press/wv02_capito/pr_081124_marc.shtml

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Reinstate MARC Train Ten-Trip Ticket Petition to Department of Transportation: Maryland Transit Administration was created by and written by Katrina M. Prieur (Level1Cache@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.