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Published March 9, 2015 on CBS DC.

BALTIMORE (WNEW/AP) — A commuter rail link between Baltimore and D.C. is adding more trains to handle increased ridership and better serve University of Maryland students.

Monday will be the first day of service for the new MARC Camden Line trains. Officials with the Maryland Transit Administration and local politicians will speak at a news conference Monday morning in Baltimore about the importance of the increased service. Before their remarks, they will ride the train from College Park to Baltimore’s Camden Station.

“The professional schools are here but the flagship campus is there and the state is trying to encourage a lot more cooperation between them: researchers working together, having programs go back and forth like the law school now, including a masters degree in law at the College Park campus,” says Md. Sen. Jim Rosapepe. “The physical connection makes a difference because a lot of courses are online but there’s still a lot of courses in class so it being easier for people to get back and forth is a big deal.”

The Camden Line will add a new morning train that leaves Washington for Baltimore at 7:40 a.m. There will also be a new afternoon train that leaves Washington at 3:30 p.m. and goes to Dorsey Station in Howard County. Another new train will leave Dorsey for Washington at 4:45 p.m.

“If we want to be even better we need to find ways to make collaboration not just possible but easier,” says Jay Perman, president of the University of Maryland-Baltimore.

He cites UM Ventures, which he describes as the arm of the Mpowering the State Alliance between the two campuses as a group as one that will take advantage of the expanded MARC service. It’s a group he says builds “relationships with industry and works with faculty inventing incredible technologies and therapies.”

Those responsibilities mean “the UM Ventures team travels back and forth between Baltimore and College Park all the time checking out different innovations, making deals with pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms. So this expanded MARC train service makes their work easier. It makes them more productive and that benefits all of Maryland. All of us.”

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