The station is located on the south side of Campus Parkway, about 1 mile (1.6 km) southeast of the campus center and adjacent to the College Park office park. The two-track Capital Subdivision (used by MARC) and the two-track Metro E Route run north-south through the station area, with the Capital Subdivision on the west side. An island platform serves Metro trains, with entrances from both sides of the rail lines leading to the underground fare concourse. Two small side platforms serve MARC trains; they have an entrance from the west side and an underpass crossing under the Metro tracks. The Metro platform is accessible, but the MARC platforms are not.
A 1,345-space parking garage and a bus plaza are located on the east side of the station. The station is served by Metrobus, The Bus, LaurelConnect-a-Ride, and a university shuttle route.
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) opened its Washington Branch, now the Capital Subdivision, in 1835. A station served the 1856-opened Maryland Agricultural College (now University of Maryland, College Park) by 1878.[3] B&O Baltimore–Washington commuter service was taken over by MARC as the Camden Line in the 1980s.
Metro service at College Park began on December 11, 1993, with the extension of the Green Line to Greenbelt.[4] The parking garage opened on June 25, 2005.[5] In May 2012, the station became the first Metro station to feature a "Bike & Ride" bike station. A mesh enclosure built into the adjacent parking garage, the facility can hold up to 120 bikes and has 24-hour access.[6][7]
Metro Yellow Line service was extended to Greenbelt, serving College Park, during peak hours from June 18, 2012, to June 25, 2017, as park of the "Rush+" program.[8][9] It was again extended to Greenbelt at all times on May 25, 2019.[10] From March 26 to June 28, 2020, the station was closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.[11][12] The Metro station was closed from May 29 to September 6, 2021, while the platform was rebuilt.[13][14] Yellow Line service was suspended from September 10, 2022, to May 7, 2023. It was cut back to Mount Vernon Square upon reopening, no longer serving College Park.[15][16] From July 22 to September 4, 2023, the Green Line north of Fort Totten (including College Park) was closed for maintenance work.[17]
The Purple Line, a light rail line, is under construction and planned to open in 2027.[18] It will have a platform on the east side of the Metro tracks. In May 2024, the Federal Transit Administration awarded the MTA $1.4 million for design and engineering work to make the MARC station accessible. The new platforms would be 600 feet (180 m) long.[19][20]
^"Vansville Dist. No. 1" (Map). Atlas of fifteen miles around Washington, including the county of Montgomery, Maryland. 1:31,680. G.M. Hopkins. 1878. p. 45. hdl:loc.gmd/g3850m.gct00186.
^"Metro Facts"(PDF). Washington Metropolitan area Transit Authority. 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 22, 2016.
TheBus: 14, 17
Media related to College Park–University of Maryland station at Wikimedia Commons
