BWI
BWI Business
BWI Airport or BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport as destination signs say opened on September 6, 1997. This station is the terminus of a two stop branch off the main light rail line that extended service directly the edge of the BWI International Airport's Concourse E, a new international addition to the main terminal that opened the same year as the rail station. There is also an Amtrak/MARC station for BWI Airport on the Northeast Corridor, but this requires a Shuttle Bus ride, making this station only intermodal with light rail and planes, not intercity/commuter trains.
The station should have a super easy plane to train connection, especially if you arrive in Concourse E. Unfortunately, BWI, when installing new post-9/11 exits from the secure area, has decided to turn the former glass exit doors from Concourse E into just emergency exits. Today, this requires all domestic passengers arriving in Concourse E to walk an extra 500 feet away from the Light Rail Station to the nearest exit from the sterile area near Concourse D, before doubling back through the baggage claim area to reach the light rail station (your webmaster had this poor experience when flying into BWI in August 2024, watching a light rail train leave as I was walking past the baggage claims in the arrivals area to get to the station). Arriving International passengers have an easier connection with the light rail station right near the exit from US Customs and Immigration. Departures are similarly poorly located with the nearest security checkpoint closer to Concourse D.
The station is nestled between the arrival's roadway (with the departure roadway above) and an employee parking lot that is in turn nestled between the train tracks and airport tarmac that is visible in the distance from the station.
The station itself contains two train tracks with an island platform that end in bumper blocks at the very end of the platform. These tracks switch and become just one track north of the station since the line north of here is single-tracked. The tracks themselves are in the open air, with the platform containing a curved modern canopy structure that covers the entire platform.
The only station entrance is from the end of the platform between the bumper-blocks at the end of the tracks. This is located directly under the edge of the two-story terminal building. The mini-high platforms for ADA access to arriving trains at the front of the platform, are on their own little side-platform areas opposite the island platform. The opposite end of the island platform entirely ramps up to a shared mini-high platform for both tracks before ending with an emergency exit ramp down between the tracks (where when I visited in August 2024, a spare Southwest Airlines wheelchair was just chilling).
The light rail station is directly outside Door Number 19, complete with a countdown clock for the infrequent 20 minutes peak hours, 30 minutes at all other times light rail service. The TVMs for the light rail are located inside the terminal building off to one side with a sign saying purchase your tickets here.
Photos 1-11 taken on October 10, 2015; 12-52: August 31, 2024
