Rail Station

Question: What Baltimore landmark was visited by Queen Mary, Babe Ruth, Clark Gable, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Jimmy Carter?Answer: Pennsylvania Station.We don't attach the rosy aura of history to Baltimore's main Amtrak station.But it is time this 1911 work of solid and honest architecture was given some applause. Thanks to writer-historian Frank Wrabel, there's now a concise, well-documented history of Baltimore's fine old passenger station.His 51-page article, published with excellent color and black-and-white photos, is called "Terminals, Tunnels and Turmoil, the History of Pennsylvania Station -- Baltimore."

A man was taken to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center with serious injuries after a shooting at the platform of a Light Rail stop in Lutherville Friday afternoon, Baltimore County police said. Officers were called to the 100 block Ridgely Road at 4:15 p.m. A police dispatcher said the shooting occurred on the platform of the Light Rail station. Police have not made any arrests in the shooting. K -9 and aviation were at the scene with detectives Friday afternoon. Baltimore County Police said Saturday they are continuing to investigate the shooting.

A 51-year-old Davidsonville man was hit and killed by a car Tuesday afternoon near the Cromwell Light Rail Station in Glen Burnie, according to Anne Arundel County police. Douglas Frank Pohlman was crossing Baltimore Annapolis Boulevard at about 2:30 p.m. when was struck by a 2004 Chevrolet Impala driven by William C. Smith of Warminster, Pa. Pohlman was taken to Maryland Hospital Shock Trauma where he died from his injuries. He crossed between two designated crosswalks that are marked with operating pedestrian signals, police said but he was not in a designated crosswalk.

The Baltimore Sun A man stabbed an unidentified victim in a fight over a cellphone at the Westport light rail station Friday night, triggering a two-hour closure of the station, according to the Maryland Transit Administration. The altercation occurred about 6:30 p.m., when a man tried to take someone's cellphone at the facility in the 2200 block of Kloman St. in South Baltimore. When the victim fought back, a fight between the two spilled onto the station platform, where the assailant stabbed the phone's owner at least once, the MTA reported.

From the man who tried unsuccessfully to use his car as a getaway vehicle for a theft — but ultimately carried the loot to the Linthicum light rail station — to repeated damage that threatened to cost him a take-home car from work, Bruce Henkel has had enough of problems he says the station has brought to his neighborhood. The Anne Arundel County plumbing inspector lives a stone's throw from the station — as he says damage to his property indicates. In the past year, youths have pitched stones from the station that broke two windows and dented his take-home car, and damaged his home.

More than 150 volunteers will act as victims during a training exercise tomorrow in Hunt Valley. After nine months of planning, only hurricane-related weather could derail Baltimore County's mass-casualty exercise, said Richard Muth, the county's director of emergency management. The drill will run from 8 a.m. to noon at the Hunt Valley light rail station and will involve the county's public works, police and fire departments. The Maryland Transit Administration, Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Franklin Square Hospital Center also will participate.

A Baltimore man who ran from police checking tickets Saturday on the light rail line was arrested on drug charges, county police said yesterday.Officers searched the man and found 26 grams of marijuana with a street value of $260, police said.Officer Keith J. Light was boarding a northbound train at the Ferndale station around 1:30 p.m. Saturday when he asked a man leaving the train for his ticket, police said.When the man said he did not know how to work the ticket machine, the officer asked for identification and began to search the man.The man grabbed the officer's wrist, pushed him and ran, police said.

Though some merchants in the Cromwell Field Shopping Center say Baltimoreans are riding the light rail to pilfer their stores, Anne Arundel County county police say that's not quite ++ true."

Hundreds of Linthicum residents want the Maryland Transit Administration to shutter the light rail station after an attack on a man near the facility, and they vow to turn out for a public hearing this month on a plan to trim its hours. The MTA beefed up station security in response to a community outcry and has proposed closing the station at 8 p.m., three hours early. Residents say it has brought crime to their neighborhoods, and they are creating a nonprofit group to pursue closing it entirely.

A light-rail station anywhere near Baltimore-Washington International Airport would be an improvement for many workers using public transportation to commute from the city, local businessmen say."We welcome the light rail," said Sylvia Taylor, personnel director for Guest Quarters BWI hotel. "We have about 30 employees who use public transportation to get to work."Employees often purchase a monthly bus pass, for which Guest Quarters picks up half of the $37.50 cost, Taylor said. But employees still have to catch a shuttle bus from the Mass Transit Administration stop to the hotel.