(The following story by Michael Dresser appeared on The Baltimore Sun website on June 24, 2010.)
BALTIMORE, Md. — A ride on the Penn Line by Gov. Martin O’Malley to atone for Monday night’s passengers stranded on a sweltering “hell train” turned into a vituperative political exchange Thursday after former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. leveled a blast at top administration appointees over their attention to MARC issues.
After the Ehrlich campaign issued a statement criticizing top O’Malley appointees for failing to attend meetings of a MARC riders’ advisory group, O’Malley responded with a withering criticism of Ehrlich’s personnel choices.
O’Malley charged that the former governor failed to show a commitment to transit, frequently awarding jobs to “hacks” and “cronies from Ehrlich’s days in the General Assembly while appointing some experienced transportation professionals to high-ranking positions.
“Their vision of transportation priorities is to pave the bay — more roads, more roads, more roads,” the governor said at New Carrollton station after taking a morning train ride down from Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
The political back-and-forth came after a news conference O’Malley held at BWI Station before boarding the southbound train. He used the ride to talk with passengers, extend apologies and promise action to prevent a repetition of Monday’s incident in which almost 1,000 riders were left to bake on the tracks without air conditioning, water or information on what was going on. It was an ordeal that sent at least two passengers to the hospital and prompted others to pop out windows or escape from the train.
“Were you on the ‘hell train?’ ” the governor asked several passengers as he and a fellow Democrat, Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin, made his way through the train to New Carrollton.
For most of the ride, O’Malley stayed on his feet, but he sat down next to April Fehr of Parkville to discuss her experience aboard the stranded train. “It was so hot,” said Fehr, who added that the incident left her clothes “soaked through.”
O’Malley told Fehr the Amtrak technicians and control center took a narrow view of their task Monday night as they continued to troubleshoot the problems on stalled Train 538.
“They became very myopic and lost touch with the comfort and safety of the people,” the governor said.
Passengers, stranded in rail cars that lost power as temperatures inside soared, said conductors kept doors closed and failed to keep them informed as the repairs dragged on.
“We are going to do everything in our power to see that such a breakdown doesn’t happen again,” the governor said.
O’Malley said he has since talked with Joseph Boardman, Amtrak’s chief executive officer,” and received an “abject” apology for the railroad’s performance that night. As a state contractor, Amtrak owns the Penn Line, operates its trains and provides its crews.
The governor said immediate changes would include stocking MARC trains with adequate water for passengers in the event of another heat-related emergency. He also said the state would take steps to improve communications between Amtrak’s command center in Philadelphia and the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
“We’ve got to do a better job of linking their command center to ours so we can yell and scream,” he said.
As he made his way to the platform and rode the train, O’Malley repeatedly reminded riders that his administration has nearly doubled capital spending for MARC and that the system is adding new locomotives at the rate of two per month.
O’Malley received a generally favorable response from passengers, though some were clearly not satisfied.
Rick Gebert of Dundalk, a MARC commuter since 1993, called the governor’s ride a “photo op in an election year.”
Maryland should stop using Amtrak as a contractor on the Penn Line, Gebert said, adding that conductors are frequently rude and uncaring. Commenting on the impact of the governor’s ride, he said, “I’m sure it will help for a little while and things will go back. The problem is Amtrak.”
The chief executives of both Amtrak and the Maryland Transit Administration apologized to customers after the incident.
When he reached New Carrollton, O’Malley was asked by a reporter about a statement put out by the Ehrlich campaign criticizing Transportation Secretary Beverly Swaim-Staley, former Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari and Maryland Transit Administration chief Ralign T. Wells for failing to attend meetings of the MARC riders’ advisory committee, a group the generally meets each month at Union Station in Washington to discuss concerns with MTA officials.
The Ehrlich campaign pointed out that the former governor’s transportation secretary, Robert L. Flanagan, frequently attended such meetings. It said that if Swaim-Staley had attended, she would have understood the problems on MARC.
“Governor O’Malley and his senior transportation leadership have had four years and 30 meetings with MARC riders to learn what’s on commuters’ minds, and chose not to participate,” the campaign quoted Ehrlich as saying. “Had they given this citizen panel the respect it deserves, they would have learned years ago of declining service, shoddy operations, overcrowded trains, limited parking, and a general sense of frustration among riders.”
In response, O’Malley charged that Flanagan had shown a strong interest in MARC because the Ehrlich administration was seeking to reduce service on the Brunswick and Camden lines. In fact, Flanagan had proposed closing four less-used stations on those CSX-operated lines before being blocked by the General Assembly.
O’Malley also lit into Ehrlich’s record of appointing former legislative colleagues to high positions in the Transportation Department — a practice the current administration has not followed.
When Ehrlich appointed him, Flanagan was a veteran Howard County delegate. Flanagan’s first deputy was Trent Kittleman, a lawyer and wife of the late Del. and Sen. Robert Kittleman, who later was moved to the top post at the Maryland Transportation Authority. She was succeeded by Del. James Ports, who has been Republican whip in the House of Delegates.
For a brief time during the Ehrlich administration, former Republican Del. Phil Bissett held the post of director of MARC at a time when he was contemplating a run for Anne Arundel County executive.
Andy Barth, a spokesman for the Ehrlich campaign said the characterization of the former governor’s appointees as cronies and hacks “lowers the whole tone” of the campaign.
“There’s nothing about serving in the legislature that makes you unfit to administer,” Barth said.