Amtrak

Twenty years later, Robert Booker is still haunted by things he saw on a bitterly cold Sunday on the railroad tracks behind his home. Booker, then 19, was hailed as a hero for what he did that day - Jan. 4, 1987 - when a northbound Amtrak Colonial slammed into an errant train of three Conrail freight locomotives near the small eastern Baltimore County community of Chase. Sixteen people died. The total might have gone far higher if not for the efforts of Booker, his cousin Michael Cooper and other neighbors and first responders who rushed to a scene of blood and twisted metal to pull survivors from the smoking wreckage.

Commercials for Amtrak's Acela ask, "What's your destination?" The answer better not be Baltimore. Late last month, without fanfare, Amtrak began running two Acela Express trains that bypass Baltimore, snubbing the city that was home to the nation's first railroad line in 1830. The new express trains run between New York and Washington with only one stop - in Philadelphia. This is just what Baltimore needs: In a sweltering summer, with the homicide numbers climbing with the mercury, Amtrak has made it a little harder to get out of town.

Amtrak, in its most aggressive move to lure commuters off the highways and out of the skies, unveiled yesterday its first high-speed rail system, trains with plush seats, work stations and bistros that will glide at 150 mph from Washington to New York and Boston.Long-planned and viewed skeptically by critics, the service is scheduled to begin in October, Amtrak officials said at a news conference in New York.The trains will knock 2 1/2 hours off trips from Baltimore to Boston, cutting travel time from eight hours to 5 1/2 hours.

BRITAIN depends more on rail transport than does the United States. So as MARC tries to increase commuting in the Baltimore-Washington corridor and Amtrak plans faster inter-city service, examining British problems might prevent the worst here.The British state railroad was dismembered and privatized into separate companies sharing facilities -- the old U.S. model -- in 1996-1997. Since then, service has improved on some lines and worsened on others. Safety remains a government regulatory responsibility.

Amtrak is spending at least $10.5 million to prepare Pennsylvania Station for high-speed rail service and is exploring plans to turn part of the landmark terminal into a hotel.Baltimore's Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation, a city agency that monitors changes to the 1911 station at 1525 N. Charles St., approved plans for the high-speed rail-related improvements last month.Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad and owner of Penn Station, is working with a developer to explore constructing a moderately priced hotel, with 75 to 80 rooms, on the station's upper three levels, above the main concourse.

Harford County sheriff's deputies are investigating a bizarre accident yesterday in which an Aberdeen woman escaped with facial injuries after her car was struck by an Amtrak passenger train in Perryman.Mary Barbara Blair, 47, of the 3600 block of Churchville Road, told authorities she was unsure how her car ended up on the tracks in the middle of a small open field near Mitchell Lane.Adding to the confusion, police said, was that when authorities arrived at the scene shortly after midnight yesterday, Blair was nowhere to be found.

1987: Amtrak rail crash in Chase kills 161990: Maryland population 4.7 million1992: Barbara Mikulski becomes U.S. senator

Civility broke down slowly but surely on Amtrak train 110.Stalled by Hurricane Floyd on the tracks south of Penn Station around noon Thursday, passengers at first chatted, worked on their laptops and played gin. An hour passed, then two. The muffins and sodas ran out. The power went off.The mood turned particularly surly around 4 p.m., when cell phone batteries began to die. Then toilets overflowed. By 6, there was no stopping the businessmen in suits and women in high heels who jumped from the train and traversed a muddy bank to freedom in the West Baltimore neighborhood of Rosemont.

BOURBONNAIS, Ill. -- They were just settling in for the night, comfortably ensconced in the first-class double-decker sleeper car of a train with a famous name, the City of New Orleans. They had boarded in Chicago, just 90 minutes before, and their train, its legend celebrated in a popular American folk song, was due to pull into New Orleans in the late afternoon of the next day.But in a single horrifying instant, everything changed. At 9: 55 p.m. Monday, Amtrak's City of New Orleans smashed into a semi-trailer truck at a railroad crossing in this rural town about 55 miles south of Chicago.

An unidentified man was killed late Saturday when he was struck by an Amtrak passenger train that was leaving the Baltimore-Washington International Airport station, a railroad spokesman said.Amtrak police would not release the identity of the victim and said the accident is being investigated.Amtrak spokesman Russ Hall said train No. 198, the Bowery -- an engine and six passenger cars en route to New York from Washington -- struck the man about 11: 06 p.m. about 200 feet from the station.

Amtrak has finished overhauling and has returned to MARC the second of four AEM-7 electric locomotives that had been out of service for more than two years, bolstering the commuter rail system's ability to haul long trains and reduce crowding. Maryland Department of Transportation spokesman Jack Cahalan said the newly returned locomotive performed well on the first of a series of tests in which it hauled a train equipped with a backup locomotive - the first of the AEM-7s returned by Amtrak.

Teen killed by Amtrak train identified as Elkton-area boy A boy killed Sunday when he was struck by an Amtrak Acela train in Cecil County has been identified as a 13-year-old from the Elkton area. Maryland State Police and county officials said Shawn Luther Kelly was struck as he crossed railroad tracks near his home. The teen and two friends were returning to their homes after playing in a nearby wooded area. Vernae Graham, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said the southbound Boston-to-Washington train with 181 passengers might have been moving as fast as 130 mph shortly before 5 p.m. when it struck the boy about four miles west of Elkton.

The beleaguered MARC commuter train system received hopeful news this week as the Maryland Transit Administration welcomed back to its fleet the first of four electric locomotives that have languished in an Amtrak repair yard in Delaware for much of the past three years. Terry Schindler, Amtrak's deputy chief mechanical officer, said the railroad expects to return a second locomotive to the MTA by early next week. He said Amtrak believes it has found a way to repair an electrical problem that had sidelined MARC's 23-year-old fleet of AEM-7 locomotives and hopes to deliver the remaining two to MARC before the end of the year.

Of all the myriad and pressing issues facing Amtrak these days, from replacing generations-old infrastructure to expanding high-speed rail service beyond the Northeast corridor, who knew that the U.S. Senate would decide that the most important matter of all was this - making it easier for Amtrak passengers to take along guns? But that's exactly what happened last week when the U.S. Senate voted 68-30 on an amendment that would require Amtrak to accept firearms at all stations with checked baggage within six months or lose all federal funding.

Raymond Morrison Geisendaffer Sr., a retired Amtrak passenger conductor whose railroad career spanned more than three decades, died of bladder cancer Aug. 21 at his Parkville home. He was 86. Mr. Geisendaffer, the son of a mover and homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Lanvale Street. He was a semi-professional middle-weight boxer during the 1930s in Baltimore and was a 1939 graduate of City College. During World War II, he enlisted in the Army and served as a military policeman in North Africa and Italy, until he was honorably discharged in 1945.

After years of planning and false starts, Amtrak has reached agreement with a developer to turn the upper three levels of Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Station into a 77-room hotel, a first for an Amtrak-owned station along the northeast corridor. Amtrak officials confirmed this week that they have signed a lease with Hospitality Partners of Bethesda that will enable the company to build and run a "boutique" hotel inside the 1911 train station while it continues to operate as a railroad terminal.

A lot of women I know take day trips to New York City to see a Broadway show, go shopping, or dine at a fine restaurant on a special occasion. But I prefer to take my expensive 24-hour city jaunts to move my daughter in and out of various dormitories in the neighborhoods around Washington Square. Actually, I'm writing this on the Amtrak now, returning home to Baltimore after moving her back into the city for a mandatory summer session just 10 days after we picked her up from her freshman year.

Horseshoe manufacturer worker suffers hand injuries 2 An employee at a Rosedale horseshoe manufacturer was seriously injured Friday morning after his hands were caught in a 60-ton press, according to a Baltimore County Fire Department spokeswoman. The man was taken to the Curtis National Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital. His injuries were not considered life-threatening, said the spokeswoman, Elise Armacost. About 9 a.m., county fire crews were called to Victory Racing Plate Co. at 1200 Rosedale Ave. Using airbags and hydraulic tools, it took them about 25 minutes to free the worker's hands from the press, which is used to mold metal into horseshoes, Armacost said.

March 31 was a lousy day to observe the travails of life aboard a MARC train. I took two round-trips - one on the Penn Line and one on the Camden Line - and the rides couldn't have gone more smoothly. Where was the dysfunctional MARC I'd been hearing so much about? I was aboard that day as an exercise in making amends. After a recent column implied that MARC riders were a wee bit more persnickety than the typical transit rider, my in-box was flooded with indignant e-mail. One of my more spirited e-mail discussions evolved from ire to mutual respect to an invitation to meet with a group of MARC commuters over a beer.

Of all the customers of the Maryland Transit Administration, none are more vocal than MARC train riders in crying foul over real and imagined service lapses. Many MARC folks come from a more elevated social strata than other public transit riders, and their expectations are high. Indignities MTA bus riders endure in silence bring protests from MARC passengers. And MARC riders can be quick to point the finger at the wrong people for the unavoidable mishaps that occur when commuter trains share a fragile system with Amtrak and CSX. But sometimes a MARC rider registers a complaint that goes straight to the heart of issues for which the MTA is fully culpable.