BALTIMORE — Train service between Wilmington, Del., and Washington was disrupted yesterday evening after a collision between a northbound Amtrak passenger train and a southbound MARC commuter train near Baltimore’s Pennsylvania Station, according to the Baltimore Sun.
The 5:45 p.m. accident beneath the Howard Street bridge left the Amtrak train’s engine and two empty commuter train cars derailed but standing, and resulted in minor injuries to six people, authorities said.
Officials said rail traffic through Baltimore likely would resume this morning, but for Amtrak and MARC passengers to expect delays because all tracks at the site may not be open. Last night, passengers were being bused between the stops at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Penn Station.
A crew specializing in re-railing cars began arriving early this morning.
As investigators for Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and National Transportation Safety Board began investigating the collision, Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman, acknowledged that the Maryland Rail Commuter train had the right-of-way as it was pulling away from the downtown rail station.
Amtrak’s northbound Miami-to-New York Palmetto train, including two engines, eight passenger cars and three freight cars, was emerging from a tunnel and entering the same middle track on which the MARC train was moving. “The Amtrak train should have held, should have waited until that MARC made its move,” he said, adding that the speeds were about 15 mph.
The Amtrak train carried 147 people, and 60 were aboard the MARC train, with six passenger cars. But no one was riding in the MARC cars that derailed, and that likely averted serious injury. Black noted that the end of the worst-damaged MARC car “just dove in” from the impact.
According to railroad officials, there were slight injuries to four MARC passengers, and a conductor and passenger on the Palmetto. And the few of them who were taken to hospitals were treated and released, officials said.
“There is never a good time for this kind of thing, but this was the worst time because it was rush hour and so many people were traveling,” said Amtrak spokeswoman Karen Dunn.
The accident forced Amtrak to briefly halt service between Washington and Wilmington. It resumed last night but entailed substantial delays as riders were bused between BWI and Baltimore.
Amtrak sent a customer care team to assist passengers with medical needs and transportation arrangements.
MARC service was interrupted between West Baltimore Station on Franklin Street and the Perryville station north of the city. The Maryland Transit Administration also turned to buses to get stranded riders to BWI and Perryville.
Investigators with NTSB were downloading data from the “black box” in the cab of each train, which records speed, throttle and brake settings. If the findings from the data are inconclusive, the agency planned to send a team back for a full examination.
The most likely causes of the collision are signal failure or operator failure, Black said.
The MTA is not drawing any conclusions about the cause of the accident, spokeswoman Suzanne Bond said.
While officials expected a resumption of rail traffic through Baltimore as early as 6 a.m. today, they expected some track will need repair. One short section of track was turned on its side.
“Until we get the cars back on the track and move the trains out of there, we’re not going to know how much damage there is to the track,” Dunn said.
Passengers said they did not know what was happening when they suddenly felt several sudden jolts, and both trains came to a halt. “There was a jolt, jolt, jolt, and I thought there must have been some kind of derailment,” said Eugene Albert, 56, who was riding on the Amtrak train to Philadelphia, his home. “This was not a good thing.”
Albert said he thought initially the train might have been a terrorist target, until he learned there had been a collision with a MARC train.
Robert Cantrell, 37, who was riding the MARC train to Washington, described feeling “a sudden pull and a jerk,” adding, “I knew we hit the train next to us.”
Passengers from the Amtrak train walked the short distance to Pennsylvania Station, where they waited until they were allowed to board another train about an hour later.
Two cars on the commuter train were derailed — the worst of them left listing at about a 15-degree angle, with some wheels off the rails. The Amtrak train’s diesel engine also was partially pushed off the tracks by the impact.
By 7:30 p.m., Pennsylvania Station was largely deserted. Some MARC travelers arrived by bus or light rail from the stop that became the end of the rail line for their trips north from Washington — BWI Airport. There was a handful of people waiting for passengers on trains held up by the accident, and a few trying to sort out disrupted travel plans to get out of state.