 New Carrollton, MD | Northeast Regional | Baltimore, MD  |
| Vermonter | ||
| Palmetto | ||
| Washington, DC | Acela Express | |
| Crescent |
BWI Airport Rail Station or BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, MD (as written on platform signs) opened on October 23, 1980, as the first intermodal railroad station in the United States to service an airport. The station was designed for service from both Amtrak and then Conrail operated commuter trains from the day it opened. The stop doesn't have a direct connection to any airline terminals with passengers needing to take an airport operated free shuttle bus to and from the terminals two miles away. This shuttle bus is scheduled to take about 12 minutes. This shuttle bus can also provide an indirect connection to the Baltimore LightRail Link who's BWI Airport Station is directly at the end of Concourse E.
The station also has multi-use trail connections via spur its own spur to the BWI Hiker-Biker Trail. The core of this trail network is a 12-mile-long loop trail that also provides access via a spur to the airline terminals along with direct access to the Thomas A. Dixon, Jr. Aircraft Observation Area. In addition, this trail network provides walking connections to the various sprawling office parks that surround the station, although overall the station is at a greenfield site surrounded by trees, with long walks to get anywhere.
Amtrak launched its first airline partnership with Icelandair in June 2001, which gave Icelandair flight numbers to Amtrak trains. This partnership didn't last all that long (Icelandair ended all flights to BWI in 2007), but it helped Amtrak pioneer its codeshare agreement with Continental Airlines once the Newark International Airport Rail Station opened on October 21, 2001. This partnership lasted into the United Airlines merger era but was discontinued in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today the station sees service (as of January 2024) from all Southbound and most Northbound (although a few Baltimore-bound express trains skip the station) MARC Trains. Amtrak service to and from the station is extremely frequent. All Northeast Regional trains stop at the station. Many weekday, and all weekend Acela Express trains also stop.
Long-Distance Amtrak train service to and from the station is more complex and more limited. It is a stop on the Vermonter, and Palmetto. It is skipped by the Carolinian (although it stopped here until 2004) and Silver Meteor (the Silver Star also skipped the station) while the Crescent stops in the New York-bound direction only.
The station itself is relatively simple with two high-level platforms for the three-track in this area Northeast Corridor with space to someday build a fourth track. The high-level platforms were rebuilt and lengthened to accommodate up to 11 car trains between 2006 and 2010. These platforms are canopied for about four cars in their midsections, with their ends extending with just black lampposts in front of silver fencing. Signage along the platforms (primarily in front of trees) says BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, MD in white text on a blue background above arrows for the directions to Washington, DC and New York, NY.
All access to the station platforms is in the middle of the platforms. Here concrete slab supports (with cinderblock interiors) hold up a glass-walled pedestrian bridge connecting the platforms. The middle of the pedestrian bridge above the tracks has some benches for waiting passengers. Passengers have their choice of using staircases up to the pedestrian bridge that feel dreary, like fire stairs in the interior of a building, or one of two independent elevators. A redundant second elevator was clearly added later with the upper and lower landings of the elevators aren't next to each other. Signs say "additional elevator around corner."
The pedestrian bridge level contains the only entrance on the Washington-bound side of the station. Here doors lead out, under an awning that says BWI Rail Station, to modular multi-use trail bridges. These bridges lead across Stony Run to the Maryland Department of Transportation Building a third of a mile away. There is another tail connection to a suburban office park and a new Townhome Development called the Ridge, closest house is three-quarters of a mile away from the station, basically accessible from this trail after crossing Ridge Road.
The core of the station is a small pre-cast concrete single story building (not an AmStation design). Two walkways, one directly into the entrance to the pedestrian bridge, the other an exterior sidewalk provide the only entrances to the New York-bound station. Inside the depot when I visited in 2015 was a very crowded waiting room, Amtrak Ticket office (that also sells MARC tickets) and restrooms all under a very 1980s silver sheeted with lines along it in the ceiling. There is also a convince store.
In 2019 a renovation of the building was completed. It now contains very blue tile walls above the core line of windows surrounding the waiting room. Doors lead out to streetside canopies with orange ceilings. The interior of the waiting room has been completely modernized. The renovation was criticized for not doing anything to touch the leaking pedestrian bridge between the platforms.
The station building leads out to the station's access road named Amtrak way, with all traffic looping in one direction around the station's large 3,200 space seven story parking garage (that replaced surface parking lots in the 1990s). All passengers must use a crosswalk to access the parking garage with the shuttle buses to the airport terminal stopping just inside the garage. A sidewalk is along Amtrak Way that leads a short distance a spur of the BWI trail where I walked from the station to the BWI Business District Light Rail Station 1.3 miles away.
Parking at the station is expensive, costing $12.00 per day in the parking garage. There is a complex process for Marc Monthly ticket holders to apply for free monthly parking only if their monthly pass originates at BWI Airport, and their ticket is purchased by mail, not via the CharmPass App or from a ticket vending machine.
Photos 1-43: October 10, 2015;
