Prince George's County Transportation System
Metrorail
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) regional transportation system includes 86 Metrorail stations on five lines. Prince George’s County is served by three of the system’s lines: the Green, Orange, and Blue lines. Fifteen stations are located within Prince George’s County.
Generally, the properties surrounding Prince George’s County’s Metrorail stations are vacant or under-developed, and the stations themselves are underutilized and have more capacity than many other stations in the Metrorail system. As such, these stations present excellent opportunities for TOD. WMATA promotes TOD on its properties through joint development partnerships, and has identified three of Prince George’s County’s Metrorail stations for possible partnerships.
Additional information concerning these joint development partnership opportunities is included in this document, and available on the WMATA webpage.
The Purple Line
The proposed Purple Line is a 16-mile light rail transit project running east-west between Bethesda in Montgomery County and New Carrollton in Prince George’s County. The Purple Line could be completed as soon as 2016, contingent on federal funding. The Purple Line will include 21 stops, and will connect to four Metrorail stations, including two in Prince George’s County (College Park-University of Maryland and New Carrollton). The Purple Line will also connect with Amtrak at New Carrollton, all three Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) lines, and local bus lines. Additional information concerning the proposed Purple Line is available on the Maryland Department of Transportation webpage.
Amtrak
Amtrak’s Northeast Regional route serves all major cities in the Northeast corridor, including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The Northeast Regional route also serves Prince George’s County, with an Amtrak station at the New Carrollton Metrorail station. The Northeast Regional route runs over 40 trains daily between southern Virginia (Lynchburg/Newport News – Virginia Beach) and Boston. The trip between Prince George’s New Carrollton station and New York’s Penn Station takes approximately three hours and 15 minutes.
Commuter Train
The Maryland Area Rail Commuter (MARC) train system has three lines, two of which serve Prince George’s County. The Camden Line runs 18 trains per day, between Camden Yards in Baltimore and Union Station in Washington, D.C., connecting with the College Park – University of Maryland and Greenbelt Metrorail stations. The Penn Line runs 46 trains per day between Baltimore’s Penn Station and Union Station in Washington, D.C., passing through BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport Train Station and the New Carrollton Metrorail station. The State of Maryland has proposed making major capital investments to expand MARC service.
Highways
Many of the Metrorail stations in Prince George’s County have convenient access to major roads including: the Capital Beltway (I-95/495), John Hanson Highway (Route 50) to Annapolis, MD and the Eastern Shore, the I-95 corridor, and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
Additional transit options serving Prince George’s County:
- BWI Airport Bus from Greenbelt Metrorail Station (operated by WMATA): Weekdays: every 40 minutes between 6:10 a.m. and 11:20 p.m.; Weekends: every 40 minutes between 8:45 a.m. and 11:20 p.m.
- Metrobus (WMATA)
- The Bus (Prince George’s County)
- MTA Commuter Bus (Maryland Transit Administration)
- University of Maryland Bus
- Connect-A-Ride (Central Maryland Regional Transit)
- Greyhound Bus
- Prince George’s County trails and bikeways
| Table 1. Travel Times from Prince George’s County Stations Via Metrorail (in minutes) | |||||||
| Line | Station | Downtown | Reagan National Airport | BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport | |||
| Metro Center | Gallery Place | Via Bus From Greenbelt Metro | Via MARC Train From New Carrollton | Via Car | |||
| Branch Avenue | 30 | 22 | 32 | 77 | - | 47 | |
| Suitland | 27 | 19 | 30 | 74 | - | 45 | |
| Naylor Road | 24 | 17 | 28 | 72 | - | 46 | |
| Southern Avenue | 23 | 14 | 25 | 69 | - | 48 | |
| West Hyattsville | 24 | 17 | 30 | 38 | - | 40 | |
| Prince George’s Plaza | 26 | 19 | 32 | 36 | - | 37 | |
| College Park – University of Maryland | 28 | 21 | 34 | 33 | - | 34 | |
| Greenbelt | 29 | 25 | 38 | 30 | - | 30 | |
| Capitol Heights | 21 | 25 | 34 | - | 44-59 | 42 | |
| Addison Road – Seat Pleasant | 23 | 27 | 36 | - | 46-61 | 40 | |
| Morgan Boulevard | 26 | 30 | 39 | - | 49-64 | 38 | |
| Largo Town Center | 29 | 33 | 44 | - | 52-67 | 35 | |
| Cheverly | 22 | 28 | 33 | - | 21-36 | 34 | |
| Landover | 25 | 31 | 36 | - | 18-33 | 37 | |
| New Carrollton | 28 | 34 | 39 | - | 15-30 | 32 | |
| Notes: 1) The Green Line serves Gallery Place and the Orange and Blue lines serve Metro Center. Travel time differences of 4 to 8 minutes are based on transfers to the Red line between the stations. 2) BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport can be reached most conveniently by bus transit for those stations on the northern arm of the Green line to Greenbelt and by rail transit for those stations on the Orange line to New Carrollton. | |||||||
