Rail System

Nature keeps finding new ways to punish Maryland for its location straddling north and south. A storm that dumps rain on Norfolk and snow on Philadelphia blankets this area with ice. Just when ice-bound commuters would be happy to abandon their cars and jump on mass transit, the light rail system fails. The same ice that has made the streets and sidewalks treacherous also coats the overhead electric power lines that energize light rail's cars. In effect the power lines are insulated, and the trains can't make contact.

Backed by an affirming legislative session and soon to be flush with transportation money, state officials went to Washington on Monday to assure the administration that Maryland has both the means and the will to build two light rail systems. "Timing is everything," said Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, after a meeting with U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari and the deputy administrator for the Federal Transit Administration. "Maryland has the resources to move forward.

The Orioles' first night game turned out to be standing room only for Baltimore's newest transit system, and a fleet of buses had to be dispatched to move hundreds of customers who might otherwise have been stranded.Maryland Transit Administration officials reported that the Central Light Rail station in Timonium was so flooded with passengers that they were forced to load 570 into eight buses and drive them to the game.Planners had been worried that the light rail system might be unable to handle the crowds if a large number of riders showed up in a relatively narrow time frame, as they apparently did yesterday.

The Maryland Transit Administration is experiencing "massive delays" on local bus lines and the light rail system, a result of thousands of football fans attending the Baltimore Ravens parade and breaking through barricades controlling their routes through the city. "We put every available resource we had out on the system today, and the crowds were simply larger than the system could accommodate in the short time frame in which people were attempting to ride," said Terry Owens, a MTA spokesman.

Expansion of Maryland's commuter rail system, now stymied by a strapped state transportation fund, may get a $160 million boost from legislation now moving through Congress.The money is included in a national transportation funding bill approved yesterday by a House committee. If the legislation remains intact as it grinds through Congress and if President Bush signs it, the Maryland portion would provide enough money to purchase new rail cars for the Maryland Rail Commuter service, expand its parking facilities and possibly build a 14-mile spur from Point of Rocks to Frederick, said Representative Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Baltimore, in announcing approval of the bill by the House Public Works Committee.

As of 9 a.m. Monday, traffic was slow on the outer loop of I-695 near I-795, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic on I-95 southbound at the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore City and Mountain Road and Franklinville Road in Harford County. Debris in the road was blocking traffic on U.S. 50 westbound at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Maryland Transit Administration is warning light rail patrons to expect minor service delays between Hunt Valley and Cromwell. Light rail service is suspended between the Timonium and Hunt Valley stations due to construction work.

AMTRAK HAS GOOD reason to look overseas with envy. The nation's passenger rail network has never received the subsidies it needs -- or that other nations expect -- since Congress created the system 30 years ago. In the United States, the system scrambles for funds while the European Community plans to link key cities by a 12,000-mile, high-speed rail system. The system's cost: $100 billion. Indeed, nations that want good rail systems must pay for them, as Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, chairman of the Amtrak Reform Board, pointed out in congressional testimony in July.

Henry M. Kay, planning director for the Maryland Transit Administration, was named yesterday to head a new private regional coalition to push for funding and development of the proposed Baltimore Regional Rail System. "The Baltimore region has never had a good transit system," said Donald C. Fry, president of the Greater Baltimore Committee, the group leading the coalition. "In fact, you could say it doesn't have a system. With the region expected to grow by 230,000 to 250,000 [people]

The light-rail line that opens today takes passengers within clanging distance of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, the resting spot for vintage streetcars that predate Maryland's newest mode of mass transit.But all passengers can do is ride by, because the line doesn't have a stop within easy walking distance of the streetcar museum. Or the Baltimore Zoo, which is also practically on the line. Or the Village of Cross Keys, with its shops and inn. Or the neighborhoods of Ruxton and Riderwood.

Nothing makes Robin Ullman happier than bumper-to-bumper gridlock on the Jones Falls Expressway. The nightmarish traffic reports remind her, on a daily basis, why she takes the Baltimore Metro. "It sure beats the JFX at rush hour," the public defender, who lives in Owings Mills, said yesterday morning, as she zipped to her downtown job on a half-empty subway car. Total travel time: 25 minutes. Yes, Baltimore has a subway. A few people even ride it. State officials are betting that a lot more people will ditch their cars for the train in the short term if the subway is extended from Johns Hopkins Hospital to Morgan State University and if a rail line is built from Woodlawn to Fells Point.

Amtrak, long one of the favorite whipping boys of fiscal conservatives, is getting another thrashing from Mitt Romney and the Republicans. From all the attacks, one might think that the nation's bargain-basement passenger rail system was the cause of the federal deficit. The reality is that Amtrak is attracting record ridership: 30 million passengers last year, and every month in the current fiscal year has been a record-setter, too. Amtrak ridership has increased more than 40 percent over the past decade, and that's not counting the millions more who ride commuter rail lines that depend on Amtrak infrastructure.

As of 9 a.m. Monday, traffic was slow on the outer loop of I-695 near I-795, due to an accident. Accidents were slowing traffic on I-95 southbound at the Harbor Tunnel in Baltimore City and Mountain Road and Franklinville Road in Harford County. Debris in the road was blocking traffic on U.S. 50 westbound at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. The Maryland Transit Administration is warning light rail patrons to expect minor service delays between Hunt Valley and Cromwell. Light rail service is suspended between the Timonium and Hunt Valley stations due to construction work.

When Augustus Schwatka launched his blacksmithing shop on West Saratoga Street in 1810, the War of 1812 was on the horizon, locomotives were not yet a transportation option and slavery was thriving. Two centuries have passed since then, but you can still find blacksmiths at G. Krug & Son crafting steel and iron with a hammer and anvil, shaping metal heated inside an 1,800-degree forge. G. Krug & Son is one of a few remaining Maryland businesses that existed when Arunah S. Abell founded The Sun in 1837.

The light rail system is running 20 to 30 minutes behind schedule Monday morning due to equipment problems, according to the Maryland Transit Administration. The delays extend from Hunt Valley through Cromwell and BWI, according to MTA. liz.kay@baltsun.com

Kevin C. Coates and I didn't exactly get off on the right foot. The longtime advocate for Maglev — for magnetic levitation — train technology wrote that he found my column last week praising a book whose author favored another approach to high-speed rail "offensive. " I wrote back that I found it offensive that he would be offended. He is, after all, executive director of the North American Maglev Transport Institute and ought to have a thicker skin. Eventually, we got past snorting at each other like bull moose in mating season and had a civil exchange of ideas about Maglev technology versus incremental approaches to improved passenger rail service such as those championed by author James McCommons in his book "Waiting on a Train.

The Northeast may be home to the most successful passenger rail system in the U.S., but it pales in comparison to its brethren in Europe and Japan. With highways and airports in the region likely to have capacity issues and greenhouse gas emissions an alarming problem for a nation that is so car-dependent, the need to upgrade the Northeast corridor is clear enough. But before U.S. travelers can contemplate futuristic 300 mile per hour magnetic levitation trains or even the 150-200 mph trains found elsewhere, Amtrak and commuter rail systems between Maryland and Maine need something more basic: better reliability and capacity.

A collision at a rail yard early Sunday injured three workers on Washington's Metro. The transit agency says a six-car subway train was returning to the West Falls Church Rail Yard when it rear-ended a parked six-car train. Two workers were cleaning the parked train to get it ready for service. Three employees were treated for minor injuries at a nearby hospital and released. No passengers were on board when the crash occurred at about 4:30 a.m. It was the latest in a series of recent accidents involving Washington's rail system.

While there does not seem to have been any doubt that the federal government would finance the remaining segments of the Central Light Rail system, it is comforting to know the money is in the bank. With the additional $85 million pledged by the Federal Transit Administration, the central system will soon fulfill its potential. The bustling commercial area of Hunt Valley, Pennsylvania Station with its access to the the northeast rail corridor and Baltimore-Washington International Airport, with its booming commercial and industrial neighbors, all will be added to the central system.