Amtrak

In the eyes of anyone who loves railroading, Norman L. Warfield Sr., a retired Amtrak locomotive engineer, was a lucky man. During his lifetime, he got to play with real locomotives and diminutive ones. Warfield, who had celebrated his 70th birthday in January, died less than a month later of cancer in Baltimore. The Baltimore native, who was raised in Hampden and graduated from Polytechnic Institute, became an apprentice tool and die maker and worked at his trade in machine shops in Maryland and New Jersey.

I read with surprise Saturday's article about the changes to the MARC Penn Line service ( "MTA plans new schedule for MARC Penn Line," Feb. 12). MARC is the most disorganized railroad I have ever seen. Management's proposal to reduce the number of cars per rush hour train and add a few trains to reduce the load on the engines is ludicrous. Management admitted that they don't even know if the length of the train is the problem. I ride on train 407, which departs BWI at 6:37 a.m. and train 534, which departs Washington at 5:20 p.m. Both of these trains are standing room only.

MARC trains running on the Penn Line were delayed Monday morning, Maryland Transit Administration officials said. One southbound train experienced mechanical problems, along with downed overhead electrical wires, according to the MTA website and spokesman Terry Owens. MTA officials turned around train 417 at West Baltimore and it departed at 8:10 a.m., Owens said. The first train to leave Penn Station departed at 8:13 a.m., he added. "Unfortunately this morning, the train stopped at an interlocking, which caused delays both north and southbound," Owens said.

The holiday week got off to a late start for some travelers Monday morning, after a power outage caused delays for both MARC commuters and Amtrak passengers. And with construction continuing along Interstate 95 in Delaware, many highway travelers are likely to face delays this week, too. "We're making the same recommendations as we did for Thanksgiving: look for alternative routes, plan for nonpeak times at night or early mornings," said Bob King, a spokesman for the Delaware Transportation department.

Amtrak officials apologized Sunday for a "communications breakdown" early Friday that made a signal failure and seven-hour delays on the Northeast corridor all the more miserable for at least 1,700 passengers stuck overnight on trains and in stations. "It doesn't matter what the cause was — our communications should have been better and that is something we're working to improve," Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said. Greg Hard, 23, a University of Pennsylvania student who spent the night at 30 t h Street Station in Philadelphia waiting for a train home to Boston, called the experience "horrible, Kafkaesque.

Amtrak officials apologized Sunday for a "communications breakdown" early Friday that made a signal failure and seven-hour delays on the Northeast corridor all the more miserable for at least 1,700 passengers stuck overnight on trains and in stations. "It doesn't matter what the cause was — our communications should have been better and that is something we're working to improve," Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said. Greg Hard, 23, a University of Pennsylvania student who spent the night at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia waiting for a train home to Boston, called the experience "horrible, Kafkaesque.

Amtrak passengers may experience delays of about 15 minutes Friday morning after crews fixed a major signal loss and switch power problem between Baltimore and Philadelphia that would have disrupted morning commutes, railroad officials announced. Trains were running on a single track as a result and delays were initially going to be as long as two hours. It is unclear what caused the problem, according to a news release. Late Thursday night, Amtrak announced delays between Baltimore and Wilmington after a commercial power wire came down and lay on top of the caternary wire system south of the Delaware city.

The June breakdown of a Baltimore-bound commuter train — which left up to 1,200 people sweltering for about two hours and became known as the "hell train" — was worsened by the managerial lapses of MARC and Amtrak, according to a report released Thursday. Once Penn Line Train 538 stopped near New Carrollton station, communications broke down, the Amtrak crew lost sight of passengers' needs and MARC managers were slow to respond. The report, based on an investigation coordinated by the Federal Railroad Administration, concluded that the June 21 incident reflected "a series of organizational failures at multiple levels.

Seven people received minor injuries Friday morning when two trains collided at low speed in the rail yard at Union Station in Washington, derailing five cars, Amtrak says. Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm said an Amtrak switching-yard locomotive, pulling the private Silver Foot passenger car and the Amtrak Dome Car, collided with a MARC Penn Line train shortly before 9:20 a.m. in the Washington rail yard. He said six Amtrak employees were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries while a passenger aboard the private car was injured but declined a trip to the hospital.

Amtrak will acquire 70 new power-saving electric locomotives as part of a plan to rejuvenate its aging fleet on the Northeast Corridor, the manufacturer Siemens AG is expected to announce Friday. The company has been awarded a $468 million contract to provide the new generation of locomotives over a six-year period. The engines are expected to eventually replace all of Amtrak's AEM-7 and HHP-8 locomotives — breakdown-prone models used by both the national passenger railroad and Maryland's MARC commuter service.