Rail Cars

Some baseball fans might be shut out when Baltimore's new light-rail line opens for limited service to Oriole home games, beginning with Friday's exhibition at Camden Yards.State transportation officials say they've had so many inquiries about the Central Light Rail Line from Oriole fans that they fear the system won't be able to handle Friday's crush. As a result, they're warning people not to take light rail to games at first, and they're keeping buses on standby to make sure fans aren't stranded.

The railroad tunnel fire that disrupted downtown Baltimore for three days eased its grip yesterday as firefighters pulled out almost all of the charred rail cars trapped underground, including three derailed hazardous chemical tankers that had posed the greatest risk to the city. The clearest sign of a return to normality came at 7:05 last night, when the Orioles took the field at Camden Yards after three straight nights of canceled ballgames. By coincidence, the team had scheduled the game months ago to be "Firefighter Appreciation Day."

The American Public Transportation Association reports that public transit use in America is growing fast. Last year, rail and bus systems provided 9.7 billion trips. That's 25.1 percent growth over the past decade, compared with 22.5 percent growth for highways. And within the public transit world, the fastest-growing mode is - drum roll, please - light rail. From New Jersey to Los Angeles, the various forms of light rail, from modern streetcars (like Baltimore's) to heritage trolleys, are reporting double-digit ridership increases.

Baltimore, founded as an inland deep-water port, now finds itself losing a competitive struggle for the container traffic that carries much of the world's commerce. The Seagirt Marine Terminal, opened 18 years ago to help the port of Baltimore compete for this lucrative business, is struggling to cope with an array of operating disadvantages that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars to remedy with no assurance of future success. A possible answer, port officials believe, is to lease the entire Seagirt facility for 30 to 40 years to a private operator willing to invest in making the facility a success.

A group of amateur historians hopes the historic President Street Station, where Union troops clashed with an angry mob of Baltimoreans in one of the first skirmishes of the Civil War, will once again welcome trains if the state expands downtown rail service. At President and Fleet streets, the head house of the 152-year-old station stands today in the shadow of the glimmering new Marriott hotel. From 1850 to 1922, trains carried passengers to the station from points north and east. A group of history buffs, the Friends of the President Street Station, hopes that will happen once more.

Anxious to avoid a repeat of last winter's disastrous effects on light rail, the Mass Transit Administration has embarked on a $1 million effort to keep ice from shutting down the line.Sleet and freezing rain closed portions of the 22.5-mile-long Central Light Rail Line on at least four occasions in January and February -- usually for days at a time. Ice that formed on the overhead power lines often prevented the collectors, or "pantographs," on each car from making contact and drawing power.

It takes about two hours to fly from Baltimore to Chicago. But if you want to take public transit from Hunt Valley to Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to catch that plane? The 25-mile trip is going to take at least as long. As problem-plagued as Baltimore's light rail system has been over its 15 years in service, one would think that every shortcoming had been exposed. Maryland Transit Administration officials have discovered a startling new one: falling leaves.

Four callers sounded stunned as they told dispatchers that a train had just derailed in downtown Ellicott City, but none reported seeing anyone near the Aug. 20 wreck that killed two 19-year-olds, according to 911 recordings released Friday by Howard County officials. "There is debris in the road on Main Street, one caller said late last Monday. "It looks like, I guess, a car tipped over and dumped the coal into the street. " Later in the brief call, he said, "I heard it happen.

THE EYES of the nation recently were once again focused on Baltimore's - and the nation's - most serious transportation issue: our railroad tunnels. This problem has been part of the public debate for more than half a century. The trouble this time was with the CSX system's Howard Street Tunnel from Camden Yards to Mount Royal Station, but equally serious problems affect the Amtrak and Norfolk Southern systems' series of tunnels into Baltimore for both passenger and freight services. On September 20, 1976, The Sun headlined, "Derailment causes rerouting of 52 trains; East Coast hurt."

As Elkridge residents try to block a large CSX rail cargo transfer facility from their neighborhood, Howard County Council members are moving to get their own environmental analyses of two possible county sites for the $150 million project. The idea is to give county government and local residents "another layer of oversight," said County Councilwoman Courtney Watson, a Democrat who represents Elkridge and is the resolution's main sponsor. Watson has support from two other council members, giving the measure majority support on the five-member council.