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There is a possibility that my girlfriend will be offered a job in DC, while I work in Baltimore. We would like to start looking at housing in places about equal distance from DC and Baltimore, and we want to take mass transit to work (if possible), preferably rail. I'm assuming that there are a few areas that would fit the bill? Ideally we want to live in a town (i.e. main street with shops) instead of a suburban area with lots of shopping centers, but I know beggars can't be choosers, so we will consider whatever would work.
I make a general suggestion when people suggest 'split the difference' commutes--don't.
Let's say you do a dead in the middle of the MARC rail between Washington and Baltimore. That means about 30 minutes on the MARC to either city. Plus the 15 minutes to get to the station in your home town. Plus the 15 minutes to get from the stations to your offices and you have a 60 minute commute for each person each way.
That's two hours out of both of your lives, or more accurately, 4 hours commuting for the 'household'. You will both be a bit tired, a bit wired come the end of the day, and if for some reason one of the trains is delayed but not the other someone is going to wait at the station for the other train to come in and thus both of you are going to be in a delay, etc.
Compare this to another scenario: 1 person commutes by rail, the other walks to work (or basically). Live either in Baltimore or Washington, near the station. One person will have a very easy commute, the other a slightly longer one. The person with the easier commute takes care of dinner, straightens the house, pays the bills, does the laundry, etc.
This way the little things in life continue to get done and you aren't both too tired to deal with them (which can lead to more headaches).
Just a thought.
Good luck with your choice.
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