Timonium
Fairgrounds
Fairgrounds
Warren Road
Timonium
Fairgrounds (formerly Timonium Station and then Timonium Fairgrounds Station) was the original northern terminus of the Baltimore Light Rail. It opened on April 2, 1992 in time for service during Orioles Baseball games on opening day of the new Camden Yards ballpark (that opened on April 6, 1992) and for full service on May 17, 1992.
The light rail line was built on the cheap (only using state funding) with lots of single-tracked sections reducing peak frequency to only every 17 minutes even during rush hours. The mainline between Gilroy Road and Glen Burnie was entirely double-tracked through the 2000s. This allows rush hour service on the core of the network to run every 10 minutes but because of single-tracking north of Gilroy Road and a lack of appropriate switches on that northern part of the line (trains would need to reverse in the middle of the single tack section) The station is still the terminus of rush hour trains from Glen Burnie because of the remaning section of single-track between Gilroy Road and Hunt Valley, this means service north of this station is strangely less frequent during rush hours at every 20 and every 15 minutes off-peak hours. Fairgrounds Station is the start of 10 minute peak hour service on the mainline south to Linthicum.
The Fairgrounds Station contains two side platforms for the two light rail tracks. These platforms are connected by pedestrian crossings at their ends and a mid-platform crossing in the middle. The Southbound platform contains a single 9 pane of glass shelter covering a bench and the station's TVMs. The Northbound platform has a more modern black, black shelter structure that covers one bench with glass windscreens on two sides.
The station itself is located directly alongside the grounds of the Maryland State Fair, with a gate into the fairgrounds directly at the northern end of the of the Northbound platform.
During the fair, fair-goes even use the Light Rail station's Park & Ride Lot with 851 parking spaces separated by some trees from the southbound platform. To reach the light rail station from the parking lot and cross the tracks to the fair there are just two entrances from the parking lot: a staircase leads directly from the parking lot to the southern end of the Northbound platform, while a longer sidewalk loops around, past the parking garage for the Kaiser Permanente Lutherville-Timonium Medical Center located just north of the station, this path wends its way down to the tracks and a path that leads to the northern end of the Southbound platform.
During the fare the station is staffed, with the fares security check clearly visible from the station platforms along with platform being full of customer service staff and police officers making sure no one gets run over by light rail trains crossing from the parking lot to the fair.
Photos 1-17 taken on August 31, 2024;
