The home of the Baltimore Orioles since 1992, Oriole Park at Camden Yards inspired a much-copied craze for retro ballparks. And until the Nationals arrived in Washington in 2005, a commuter train from D.C. faithfully bought baseball fans in substantial numbers up to Baltimore for Orioles games. You can still hop the MARC train to see some baseball, the nearby Inner Harbor and other attractions.

MARC’s Camden Line

You can walk or take a cab, bus or the Red Line on Washington’s Metro to Union Station, where your trip to Camden Yards begins. A number of screens list departure times and track numbers; wait in the station until your Camden Line train is called for boarding. With a credit card, you can get single or round-trip tickets from Quik Trak kiosks -- generally much quicker than waiting in the long lines that mainly sell Amtrak tickets -- or online from Commuter Direct.com. If you are in danger of missing your train, you can board without a ticket and pay the conductor in cash plus a $3 surcharge, as of January 2013.

To Catch a Night Game

Three trains leave for Camden Yards early in the morning, Monday to Friday, mainly to pick up commuters and bring them back to D.C. After 8 a.m., the line stops running until around 4 p.m., when six trains over the next 3 ½ hours take commuters home and baseball fans to games. The trains leaving Union Station at 4:13, 5:22 and 5:55 p.m. arrive at Camden Yards at 5:25, 6 and 6:41 p.m. respectively, allowing time to find your seat for a typical 7:05 p.m. start -- it's about a five-minute walk to the baseball park entrance from the station. All train information is as of date of publication in January 2013. Early birds can track down barbecue, crab cakes and a beer or watch the teams warm up.

To Catch a Day Game

For day games on weekdays, which may start at 12:35 or 1:35 p.m., your best bet is to switch to the more frequent runs of the Penn Line. It honors Camden Line tickets and also departs from Union Station but ends up in mid-town Baltimore rather than west of the Inner Harbor. You can buy a ticket for Light Rail to take you from Penn to Camden Yards. To allow time for an extra 20 minutes or so on Light Rail, you could, for example, take the 10:30 a.m. Penn Line train, arriving in Baltimore at 11:30, or the 11:20 train, which also takes an hour. You can take the Camden Line back to D.C., at 5:20 or 6:15 p.m. -- all times are as of January 2013, so confirm with the latest online schedules.

Weekends

MARC doesn’t run on weekends, so you can instead take more-expensive Amtrak to get by train from D.C. to Baltimore Penn Station and hop on the Light Rail to Camden Yards. Light Rail brings you to a platform at Camden Yards only a few yards from the MARC platform. You need a ticket before boarding Light Rail, available at marked kiosks via cash, credit card, or CharmCard or SmarTrip cards.

Return Trip

MARC no longer offers postgame train service direct from Camden Station after night games back to Union Station. So, you can leave mid-game and take the last Penn Line train back, at around 9:15 p.m. Later Amtrak trains from Penn -- from 10:15 until 11:26 p.m. -- require a more expensive ticket but allow you more time at the game.

You can also take Light Rail to BWI Airport, connect with the last B30 bus at around 10:44 p.m. to Greenbelt Metro Station and continue to your stop in D.C. Times are all as of January 2013.

About the Author

An award-winning writer and editor, Rogue Parrish has worked at the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and at newspapers from England to Alaska. This world adventurer and travel book author, who graduates summa cum laude in journalism from the University of Maryland, specializes in travel and food -- as well as sports and fitness. She's also a property manager and writes on DIY projects.

Photo Credits

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