Howard Street Tunnel

CSX Transportation finished the removal of derailed cars from the Howard Street Tunnel today and is expected to resume rail traffic through it this evening, according to a railroad spokesman. Thirteen cars of a 79-car freight train left the tracks Thursday in the tunnel and outside its northern portal at Mount Royal Avenue for reasons yet to be determined, said CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan. With the cars removed, he said, railroad officials were repairing and inspecting the tracks to prepare for a resumption of traffic.

This week, we mourn for the loss of Elizabeth Nass and Rose Mayr, the 19-year-old college students who died on a downtown Ellicott City train trestle, victims of a coal train derailment late Monday night. Theirs were promising lives cut short in a truly senseless tragedy. By all accounts, the Mount Hebron High School graduates were outstanding young women, studious, outgoing, personable, funny, attractive. That they were killed seconds after posting their thoughts and a photograph on Twitter while dangling their bare feet over Main Street in a last end-of-summer get-together as the fall term at college beckoned makes the awful incident seem all the more surreal.

In the aftermath of an August derailment in the Howard Street Tunnel, CSX Transportation and Baltimore have jointly announced a series of actions to improve safety in the more than 100-year-old structure, including improved communications, stepped-up inspections and an accelerated track replacement program. The agreement reflects an increasingly cooperative relationship between the freight railroad and City Hall and stands in stark contrast to the finger-pointing and recriminations that marked the response to the near-catastrophic 2001 fire in the tunnel.

The derailment that killed two young women in Ellicott City Tuesday morning adds one more incident to a long history of CSX trains leaving the tracks in Maryland - from little-remembered events in the company's own railyards to the spectacular fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in 2001. It could be months before federal investigators determine the cause of the bizarre tragedy that occurred overnight in the historic Howard County mill town. The facts that emerged Tuesday suggested the fatalities were largely the result of trespassing on the tracks.

If you opened a Baltimore newspaper 100 years ago, a big ad on page one jumped out like an express train: "BELT LINE OPEN."What was new and marveled at in 1895 is today quietly overlooked, often forgotten.But listen on a rainy or humid day. Turn your ear to the dull roar and mournful whistle of a freight train in the Howard Street Tunnel, a splendid piece of 19th-Century engineering that turns 100 today.Nearly 1.7 miles long, the tunnel has become the largest underground conduit of rail freight on the Atlantic Coast.

The derailment that killed two young women in Ellicott City Tuesday morning adds one more incident to a long history of CSX trains leaving the tracks in Maryland - from little-remembered events in the company's own railyards to the spectacular fire in the Howard Street Tunnel in 2001. It could be months before federal investigators determine the cause of the bizarre tragedy that occurred overnight in the historic Howard County mill town. The facts that emerged Tuesday suggested the fatalities were largely the result of trespassing on the tracks.

Civil defense sirens wailed and major highways into Baltimore were closed after a freight train hauling hazardous chemicals caught fire yesterday afternoon in a century-old railroad tunnel under Howard Street, shutting down much of the city's downtown. Choking black smoke spewed from both ends of the 1.7-mile Howard Street Tunnel, and fear of an explosion or toxic fumes from a cargo that included dangerous acids prompted authorities to ban pedestrians and vehicles within five blocks of its openings at Camden Yards and Mount Royal Station.

Ten years ago Monday, scenes out of Baltimore gripped the nation and much of the world when a CSX freight train carrying hazardous cargo derailed and caught fire in the century-old tunnel that winds below downtown. For a week much downtown activity stopped. Three Orioles games at nearby Camden Yards were canceled. Freight rail traffic along the East Coast was paralyzed. Temperatures in the tunnel rose as high as 1,500 degrees as a witches' brew of chemicals burned alongside paper and pulp products, and smoke poured from the openings.

On a train bound for Washington the other evening, I considered how much Baltimore is a city built atop tunnels. As we slipped into the darkness just beyond Penn Station, I smiled at how Baltimoreans grow fascinated by stories about our dank underground byways, under the harbor, downtown, the streets, even Federal Hill. I collect tunnel stories — like the one about the kayaker who traveled the covered section of the Jones Falls, a trip that took him from a spot near Falls Road to the harbor.

As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, two lanes of the inner loop of the Baltimore Beltway near Hawkins Point Road were closed due to an accident involving three vehicles. Ridgely Street in Baltimore City was closed temporarily between Alluvion Street and West Ostend Street because a train was delayed by engine failure in the Howard Street tunnel. Bayard Street was temporarily closed between Severn Street and Ridgely Street for the same reason. No delays have been reported on mass transit systems.

As of 9:30 a.m. Thursday, two lanes of the inner loop of the Baltimore Beltway near Hawkins Point Road were closed due to an accident involving three vehicles. Ridgely Street in Baltimore City was closed temporarily between Alluvion Street and West Ostend Street because a train was delayed by engine failure in the Howard Street tunnel. Bayard Street was temporarily closed between Severn Street and Ridgely Street for the same reason. No delays have been reported on mass transit systems.

Ten years ago Monday, scenes out of Baltimore gripped the nation and much of the world when a CSX freight train carrying hazardous cargo derailed and caught fire in the century-old tunnel that winds below downtown. For a week much downtown activity stopped. Three Orioles games at nearby Camden Yards were canceled. Freight rail traffic along the East Coast was paralyzed. Temperatures in the tunnel rose as high as 1,500 degrees as a witches' brew of chemicals burned alongside paper and pulp products, and smoke poured from the openings.

On a train bound for Washington the other evening, I considered how much Baltimore is a city built atop tunnels. As we slipped into the darkness just beyond Penn Station, I smiled at how Baltimoreans grow fascinated by stories about our dank underground byways, under the harbor, downtown, the streets, even Federal Hill. I collect tunnel stories — like the one about the kayaker who traveled the covered section of the Jones Falls, a trip that took him from a spot near Falls Road to the harbor.

Fighting City Hall is never easy, but Elkridge residents are getting high marks for their quick ability to organize to try to fend off a possible site for a major rail cargo transfer facility in their community. There is a lot at stake on both sides in a decision that puts a community's view of its future welfare in the context of a major economic project, backed by the O'Malley administration and CSX railroad, that could determine the future of Maryland's chief port. The widening of the Panama Canal will allow ever-larger container ships from Asia to reach the East Coast, and officials with the port of Baltimore want to be able to cash in. To do that, CSX must be able to double-stack 40-foot-long steel cargo containers on rail cars headed to the Midwest, but Baltimore's antiquated Howard Street Tunnel isn't big enough to accommodate such traffic.

As she looked at the freshly painted benches and leafy new trees, Betty Bland-Thomas said she felt a little more alive. "People need space," said the South Baltimore community leader, watching her neighborhood park receive a rapid facelift Saturday morning. "We can't always be surrounded by concrete. You need your bread and butter and running water, but you also need grass and trees to have real quality of life. " Bland-Thomas had an unlikely source to thank for the dose of green renewal.

In the aftermath of an August derailment in the Howard Street Tunnel, CSX Transportation and Baltimore have jointly announced a series of actions to improve safety in the more than 100-year-old structure, including improved communications, stepped-up inspections and an accelerated track replacement program. The agreement reflects an increasingly cooperative relationship between the freight railroad and City Hall and stands in stark contrast to the finger-pointing and recriminations that marked the response to the near-catastrophic 2001 fire in the tunnel.

CSX Transportation has determined that the cause of the Aug. 5 derailment in the Howard Street Tunnel was defective track, spokesman Gary Saese said Thursday. Saese said "there's no doubt" that a broken rail caused 13 cars to jump the tracks in and near the more than 100-year-old tunnel — the site of a more serious derailment in 2001 that led to a chemical fire that disrupted downtown Baltimore for a week. The spokesman said the railroad had not determined what led to the break, but he said such damage typically is caused by an internal defect.

As Orioles fans walk to their ballpark seats, just below their feet flows a giant freight conveyor belt, known as the Howard Street Tunnel and all but unknown to those passing overhead on the sidewalks and asphalt.Some 30 million bricks went into this sturdy relic of railroad engineering. Excavated more than 100 years ago, the tunnel is used now by CSX Transportation, which says it is the largest subterranean conduit of rail freight along the Atlantic Coast.Most days, about 40 trains pound through this cavern, a 1.7-mile channel of Stygian darkness and dank, musty air infused with a dense humidity born of outside water seeping down the curving masonry walls.

CSX Transportation has determined that the cause of the Aug. 5 derailment in the Howard Street Tunnel was defective track, spokesman Gary Saese said Thursday. Saese said "there's no doubt" that a broken rail caused 13 cars to jump the tracks in and near the more than 100-year-old tunnel — the site of a more serious derailment in 2001 that led to a chemical fire that disrupted downtown Baltimore for a week. The spokesman said the railroad had not determined what led to the break, but he said such damage typically is caused by an internal defect.

Baltimore received a relatively gentle reminder last week of some unfinished business that it can ill afford to ignore. A CSX freight train derailed last Thursday in the Howard Street Tunnel, the scene of the nearly disastrous July 18, 2001, derailment and fire that paralyzed much of downtown for a week. Thirteen cars of a 79-car train left the tracks – 11 of them in the tunnel under Howard Street and two outside the portal at Mount Royal Avenue. Baltimore got lucky when none of the hazardous materials being hauled by the train escaped, but traffic on the line was not restored until late Friday.