Penn Station

Baltimore's three-day Artscape festival doesn't begin until Friday, but it's already having an impact on city travel patterns — with multiple street closings and parking restrictions. City officials have restricted parking around Penn Station and closed off many blocks to give organizers room to set up the annual celebration of the arts — which Baltimore bills as the largest free event of its kind in the country. An estimated 350,000 are expected to attend. Parts of Mount Royal Avenue and Cathedral, Preston and Oliver streets have been closed since Monday and will remain blocked to traffic until 4 p.m. Tuesday.

The Maryland Transit Administration is offering five free day passes to passengers who were stranded aboard a MARC train for two hours in sweltering heat last month. . The problem for many riders who suffered through the ordeal of Penn Line No. 538, the so-called "hell train," will be that they travel on monthly passes and may not be able to take full advantage of the offer. The MTA said it is offering the VIP day passes – worth the equivalent of $70 in rides from Penn Station to Union Station – as an "expression of our appreciation for your continued patronage following delays to your train on June 21."

The Purple Line of the Charm City Circulator shuttle service opened Monday, ferrying passengers — for free — between Ostend Street in South Baltimore and Penn Station. The hybrid electric buses, which are funded by increases in city parking taxes, will operate at 10-minute intervals along the north-south corridor, the second of three shuttle routes to open. Ted Walls, a Federal Hill accountant whose office is along the Purple route, was excited about the opening.

After months of delays caused by problems in the delivery of buses, Baltimore will launch the second of three planned lines for its free Charm City Circulator shuttle service Monday. The new north-south Purple Route will run downtown from Ostend Street in South Baltimore to Penn Station, operating at 10-minute intervals. The line will intersect at Pratt and Lombard streets with the circulator's east-west Orange Route, which began service between Harbor East and the Hollins Market in January.

Baltimore police have identified a woman who died in a motorcycle crash Sunday night on Interstate 83. Sheryl Anne Robinson, 40, lost control of her motorcycle south of Penn Station and hit the roadway's right wall about 5:35 p.m., a police spokesman said Sunday. The roadway was closed from Fayette Street to Penn Station for about four hours during an inquiry, he said. - Liz F. Kay

Baltimore police have identified a woman who was killed in a motorcycle crash on Interstate 83 on Sunday evening. Sheryl Anne Robinson, 40, lost control of her motorcycle south of Penn Station and hit the right wall of the roadway at about 5:35 p.m., a police spokesman said Sunday night. The roadway was closed from Fayette Street to Penn Station for about four hours during the accident investigation, he said.

I will not be sorry to see the mechanical schedule board at Penn Station replaced, and I shall sbsolutely rejoice that vocal announcements are going digital ("At Penn Station, clack-clack no more," March 22). It has been nearly impossible to understand train announcements because of echoes and the unintelligable enunciation of the staff. Whirring floor fans in hot weather did not help, either. The final straw has been the rude and condescending attitude of the representatives if one dared ask a question.

It's a whole lot quieter in Penn Station these days - no whirring sounds, no clickety-clack of an old-fashioned, mechanical signboard bringing the news that your train is 20 minutes late. In place of the iconic board above the main desk at Baltimore's Amtrak station, there now hangs a large digital board that works intermittently as it undergoes testing. For live information, passengers depend on two small temporary digital screens - miniature versions of what travelers might see listing arrivals and departures at an airport.

Two high-priority Maryland projects, including the replacement of a deteriorating tunnel that carries Amtrak trains through Baltimore, will receive $70 million in funding as part of $8 billion in rail investments announced Thursday by the Obama administration. The money, part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus program, is intended to foster development of high-speed rail in the United States, which for decades has lagged behind European and Asian nations. The biggest beneficiaries of the distribution of funds were California and Florida, where Obama made appearances to promote his signature transportation initiative.