Aberdeen
Perryville is the northern terminus of MARC Penn Line service along the Northeast Corridor. The station regained service when MARC trains were extended to Perryville from Baltimore on May 1, 1991. The station previously received Amtrak service from the Washington ↔ Philadelphia commuter's oriented Chesapeake between 1978 and 1983.
The stop is one of two stub-end terminals (the other is Rhode Island's Wickford Junction) of commuter rail service along the Northeast Corridor, with no way to continue by train between Perryville and points north. Cecil Transit bus service does provide connections from Perryville to Newark, Delaware via a bus connection in Elkton (by the abandoned historic train station in this town). This ride takes over two hours. There is also connecting bus service on the Hartford Transit LINK to Aberdeen and points south.
The station today receives service from seven terminating and six originating MARC Trains on weekdays only. The first two originating trains of the day deadhead from the closest train yard at Martin State Airport to the station, the next four round-trips layover at the Perryville Station with layovers of twenty to thirty minutes. The final three evening northbound trips arrive at the station and then deadhead back to the yard at Martin State Airport.
From 2001 until the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 a single southbound Amtrak Northeast Regional train — the first Northeast Regional of the morning — stopped at Perryville on weekdays to supplement MARC trains. Only MARC monthly and weekly passes were accepted on this train with Amtrak never selling tickets or advertising Perryville as a stop on this train.
Today MARC trains terminate directly along what would be the Baltimore-Washington bound track local track with terminating tracks switching over from the northbound track just south of the station. The terminating MARC trains don't cause any havoc with through Amtrak trains not being able to pass because the stop is located on a sort stretch of four-track line. The Northeast Corridor being reducing to just two tracks to cross the Susquehanna River just southeast of the station, and returning to two tracks two miles north of the station after passing a large yard, currently exclusively used by Amtrak for NEC maintenance trains, but an area MARC has identified for the location of a layover yard to avoid the current deadheads the 25 miles to and from Martin State Airport.
The station is located along the NEC portion in the middle of the wye where the Port Road Branch (also known as the Port Deposit Branch) ends at the Northeast Corridor. This branch line follows the Susquehanna River north to the Keystone Corridor arriving just east of the Middletown, PA station. It was once even electrified primarily for freight trains (it still sees minimal freight traffic today). Amtrak used this branch from its creation in 1971 until 1978 for the Washington sections of the Broadway Limited to/from Chicago and National Limited to/from St Louis and Kansas City. These trains never stopped at Perryville. These trains operated past Perryville using ex-Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotives.
The station itself contains a single in-service low-level side platform with a tactile warning strip that can only accommodate 3 to 4 train cars. Set back a little from this platform is a historic brick station house that was built in 1905 (as engraved in stone on the building). The station house extends with attached canopies providing some open air covering on each side of the depot. There is also a canopy above the streetside of the depot. Three Railway Express Agency former parcel carts line the platform adding to the stations historical tone.
This station house today contains a roomy waiting room with tall ceilings and double height windows including a nice window above the entrance door from the platform. The waiting room is open from 4:00am to 10:00am and 2:00pm to 11:15pm on weekdays for MARC Customers. Inside is a MARC ticket vending machine, and a few wooden benches (clearly from a restoration) along the walls of the station. The interior is painted white with a not-original linoleum floor and turquoise trim around the station windows.
At one end of the waiting room is a small area that is all volunteer run Perryville Railroad Museum. The museum opened on December 7, 1996. As of 2024 the museum is open for visitors from Noon to 4:00pm on Saturdays and Sundays with no way to visit the museum via train. The museum area is visible behind a glass window when the museum is closed. It includes a model train layout and various railroad artifacts along the remaining three walls of the museum. The opposite end of the waiting room includes a full height bare wood interior wall with a sign labeling it as a concession area.
The station contains a total of 135 parking spaces. These are located entirely in two parking lots the middle of the wye. The western triangular parking lot is directly behind the historic depot (with ADA accessible parking spaces at the southwestern corner of the lot). The eastern parking lot is accessible from a little path from the eastern end of the platform to the edge of the parking lot.
The parking lots are split into two by a driveway that leads down to a very low arched underpass of the Northeast corridor. This once led to where a Northbound platform was (which has been removed and abandoned) and turned into the Amtrak Perryville M of W Base, with a variety of maintenance trucks parked along it. The arched underpass tunnel into the maintenance based is signed as private Amtrak property – no trespassing.
All public access to the station is via the northern end of the parking lots from parallel Broad Street with the parking lot access driveways angling downhill so they reach Broad Street on its underpass between two bridges just before the end of the Port Road Branch wye.
Photos 1-52: September 5, 2024;
