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A group of upcounty residents that successfully fought to keep the Boyds and Dickerson MARC train stations open two years ago have mobilized again to battle a wave of proposed service cuts.

State transit officials say the cuts, including eliminating the weekday 1:45 p.m. Brunswick Line train out of Washington except on Fridays, are the only way to cope with falling revenue. The first Brunswick Line train out of Union Station would be 3:35 p.m.

Soaring gas prices have caused ridership to go up, but fewer drivers on the road has meant less revenue from gas and motor vehicle taxes, transit officials have said.

Members of Save Maryland Area Rail Transit, an advocacy group formed when transit officials proposed shuttering the two upcounty stations in 2006 due to low ridership, say the cuts will hurt the growing number of commuters who rely on the train.

"The more people take MARC and the less they drive, the less money MARC gets. It's nuts," said Miriam Schoenbaum of Boyds, a regular MARC rider and one of the organizers of the group.

Transportation revenues for fiscal 2009 are expected to be $115 million less than projected due to the sagging economy, according to Cheron Wicker, a Maryland Transit Administration spokeswoman. The agency reduced its workforce and cut back on discretionary spending, but it wasn't enough, Wicker said.  So far $400 million has been trimmed from MTA's fiscal 2009-14 capital budget, she said, and another $25 million in administrative costs have been cut.

Wicker did not know how much money the proposed service reductions would save.

The proposed cuts, which would go into effect on Jan. 12 or sooner for holiday service, include eliminating some commuter bus lines from Baltimore to the far suburbs; reducing or eliminating MARC service on and around some holidays; and getting rid of 10-trip tickets. The cuts also include eliminating the last two evening round-trip trains on the Penn Line. In addition, the last train from Union Station to Martinsburg, W.Va., the 883 on the Brunswick Line, would terminate at Brunswick.

The cuts affect people who work on federal holidays, parents who rely on midday trains to be with their children after school and regular riders who buy 10-trip tickets because they don't commute five days a week, according to Carol Oberdorfer of Dickerson, a SMART organizer and member of the MARC Riders Advisory Council. Many of the riders she has spoken to have said they would rather see a fare increase than service cuts, she said.

Fare increases were considered, Wicker said.

"We chose not to move forward with asking all riders to pay an increase fare at a time when household budgets are feeling pressure from other areas," she wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette.

Hundreds of riders have written to tell MTA that they would prefer fare increases to service cuts, according to an e-mail to Schoenbaum from the office of Del. Alfred C. Carr Jr. (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington. A 25 to 30 percent increase would be required, according to the e-mail from Carr's office.

As MTA's series of public hearings scheduled later this month nears, SMART members plan to be at MARC stations to let riders know about the proposed changes and encourage them to speak their minds.

"The bottom line is people are scared that any kind of cutbacks will not be restored [if revenue goes up]," Oberdorfer said.

The Maryland Transit Administration will hold a public hearing on the proposed cuts 6-8:30 p.m. on Nov. 17 in the Council Office Building auditorium, 600 Jefferson Plaza, Rockville.

Mail written comments to Glenn Litsinger, MTA Office of Customer Information, 6 St. Paul St., Baltimore, MD 21202. E-mail comments by 5 p.m. Dec. 26 with "Hearing Comments" in the subject line to commuterbus@mtamaryland.com or marc@mtamaryland.com.

For more information, visit www.mtamaryland.com