You have to like the way kids think. They might be ridiculous one minute and geniuses the next. And sometimes they have an interesting way of categorizing things. more ›

Amtrak has announced a "major expansion" of its on-board Wi-Fi service, moving it beyond the Acela train and on to a number of more widely used and affordable alternatives. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Freedom Plaza may be a little crowded this morning as antiwar and anti-Wall Street protesters make room for Mayor Vince Gray to kick off the D.C. Full Democracy Freedom Rally and March, planned to coincide with this weekend’s official dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. more ›

Those of you who fled the District to drier pastures out west may have trouble getting back in time for work on Monday. As of 8 p.m., Amtrak has suspended all service north of Jacksonville, Fla., and east of Toledo and Indianapolis through Sunday. Previously, train service had been canceled south of the District through Sunday due to a certain lass named Irene. more ›

Those planning to head to the beach this weekend aren't the only ones who will need to scrap their plans -- anyone planning on using Amtrak to travel south of the District will, as well. more ›

While the region has been focused on the drama regarding the Metro station at Dulles International Airport and where it will be built, it's important to remember that the District is fighting a similar battle over how to connect its H Street streetcar line to Union Station. more ›

Transit nerds, today is National Train Day! Amtrak celebrated its 40 year anniversary last week, and one of the biggest events in the nation is right here, in our nation's capital. more ›

Yesterday, we wanted to know whether, given similar circumstances, you'd rather take an intercity bus or the train. A little less one day later, slightly more than 55 percent of you said that you prefer the extra leg room and traffic-free trip of the railroad. But while there were plenty of bus defenders in the comments, some of you chimed in and said that when it came to a choice in travel, you took to the air. more ›

If you have tickets for a Southwest flight out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport, probably not, reports Dr. Gridlock. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, who handles flights in and out of both National and Dulles, says that there have been several domestic cancellations already, with more likely as snow accumulates and visibility gets worse tonight. All airports are currently open, but people who have flights tonight should call their airlines to check on the status of their flight. Service on inter-city bus lines is also rather spotty, with many lines canceling trips tonight and tomorrow. Amtrak is running along the Northeast Corridor this evening, but has warned that tomorrow's service may be interrupted due to the weather. more ›

Three Amtrak employees and two other people suffered minor injuries this morning after a low-speed collision between an Amtrak train and a MARC train caused a derailment outside of Union Station. Based on information from D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Pete Piringer, the two trains "bumped" after 9 a.m. this morning, but neither overturned. No customers were on either train at the time of the collision. Now, I realize that when people hear "train derailment," they immediately think of the worst -- so, for context, here's an image of the scene from WAMU reporter Patrick Madden. As you can see, its hardly the wreckage you may have initially imagined. Still, the area is a bit of a mess, and I'm sure there will be plenty of questions to answer about why the two trains were occupying the same section of track at the same time. Both Amtrak and MARC riders should expect delays today due to the investigation of the scene. more ›

Back in college, they always taught us journalism people to make sure we mention the most important fact of a story in the first line. You know, inverted pyramid and all that. So, here goes: the thing that I am about to talk about would cost $117 billion and would not be complete until 2040. That said: holy moley, is this PDF some sweet transit porn, or what? more ›

An Acela Express train struck a person on the tracks between BWI and Odenton earlier this afternoon. The Maryland Transit Administration has issued an alert that all Penn Line MARC service has been suspended until further notice. Northbound Amtrak trains out of D.C. are currently holding at Union Station. more ›

Acela Express trains are now offering free wireless internet service, Amtrak announced today. The service, dubbed AmtrakConnect, is in place on all 20 high-speed Acela trains, in addition to the six major stations along the Northeast Corridor (Union Station, Baltimore Penn Station, Philadelphia 30th Street Station, New York Penn Station, Providence Station and Route 128 Station in Boston), and in ClubAcela lounges. Both Business and First class passengers will be able to use the service on Acela. Officials say AmtrakConnect will remain free of charge "during the introductory period, after which the policy will be reviewed based on customer demand and system performance."
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Laughing at those suckers with airplane tickets because you're holding an Amtrak reservation? Uh, you might want to rein that in a bit. Due to the heavy snow, downed trees and power lines on the tracks in Virginia, the Carolinas and over most of the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, Amtrak has canceled some trains. But DCist has also been hearing accounts of sterling Amtrak service, so be sure to check your train status before you head out to Union Station. more ›

Another fatal train collision to report, this time an Amtrak Northeast Regional that struck and killed a 14-year-old Maryland girl as she was walking to school, the AP is reporting (via WTOP). The accident took place at around 9 a.m. in Baltimore County, but is creating delays all up and down the Northeast corridor as police investigate. AlertDC reported earlier that only one out of four railroad tracks in D.C. and Maryland is currently cleared for service, and at reduced speed at that. Union Station is only now beginning to release northbound trains, and significant delays are likely to continue well into the afternoon. more ›

Oops, scratch that whole "news is looking up" thing we put in the last post about today's holiday travel. If you're headed to New York City via Amtrak today, be prepared for a wait. The AP is reporting that power issues have halted all trains on the Northeast Corridor, among other lines. Trains are stuck on the tracks going both in and out of the city, with some stuck outside Penn Station and others in between NYC and Newark. Good luck, train travelers. UPDATE: The AP now says that power has been restored since 11:30 a.m., though since the outage affected trains all the way from D.C. to Boston, it's unclear how long delays might continue to get everything back into service. more ›

Amtrak and MARC Penn Line service has been suspended between Baltimore and D.C. since 7:45 a.m., thanks to a major water main break affecting tracks between the BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport and Baltimore Penn stations. Amtrak reports that tracks in the area are covered with mud, trees and other debris. Service restoration is not expected until at least noon today, and could be hours later. There's literally no alternative rail service between the two cities, so if you had plans to travel north from D.C. via train this morning, you ought to look into a bus. You can call 800-USA-RAIL for train status updates later in the day. more ›

Vice President-Elect Joe Biden is a well-known train geek, so we have to assume he was involved in the decision for him and President-Elect Barack Obama to arrive in Washington on Jan. 17 via Amtrak. Sure, the Lincoln-loving Obama says he's replicating his presidential hero's journey to Washington by starting out in Philadelphia and stopping in Baltimore on his way, but Biden made the fact that he rides the train between D.C. and Wilmington almost every day one of his talking points during the campaign, so the symbolism works for both of them rather nicely. more ›

Don't get too excited just yet, but this story from the Washington Times is bound to make those of you who travel between D.C. and New York City on a regular basis salivate. The federal government plans to announce it is seeking contractors to build a new $30 billion to $40 billion high-speed rail line between Washington and New York that would be used exclusively by passenger trains. Now, Congress still has to vote to fund such a project, so this is clearly many, many years away. But if it does eventually happen, the bottom line would be that you could get from D.C. to NYC on Amtrak in under two hours. The very idea gives us goosebumps. more ›

We've chronicled photographer harassment in the D.C. area, most recently at Union Station, where amateur photogs have encountered great confusion as to who owns which portions of the station and shops, where those sections end, and what rules apply to photographers in each one. Tomorrow, the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Managment of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, will try to find answers to those questions in a hearing at 10 a.m. Representatives from the Union Station companies will testify, as well as the Director of D.C.'s Department of Transportation, and notably, one of our Flickr contributors who has pursued this issue relentlessly, Erin McCann (PDF). The hearing will be webcast live; you can also catch a report afterward by Flickr user LightboxDC, who will be in attendance. more ›

We all know the effect that levels of federal funding have on transit around here (and, obviously, around the country). One only has to look to the way that the Federal Transit Administration has handled the development of the proposed Purple and Silver Lines to see it - public services toyed with by the fickle madam that is federal appropriations. Without the cash from the Feds (however small that apportionment may be), not much seems to get done in the world of mass transit - it's sad, but true. more ›

This is pretty good: Fox 5's Tom Fitzgerald decided to do a report on the ongoing harassment of photographers inside D.C.'s busy Union Station, a topic we've written about and heard about from our own Flickr contributors many times before. While he was there interviewing Amtrak's spokesperson on the subject, who in fact told the reporter that photography is absolutely allowed inside the Amtrak portion of the station, a security guard came up to the Fox 5 crew and told them turn their cameras off. You can watch the report here. more ›

Hopefully, you didn't miss us too much last week. But it seems that we weren't the only transit columnists that got stuck on Amtrak during last weekend's travel. more ›

The Associated Press is reporting that all Amtrak and NJ Transit trains between Philadelphia and New York's Penn Station were stalled for about 90 minutes this afternoon because of electrical power problems. more ›

Metro's board will be holding a full public hearing today on the future of the city's most circulated lines, the 30s. The current set of six routes run east to west along Pennsylvania and Wisconsin Avenues, and carry over 20,000 passengers a day from residential areas in Northwest and Southeast to downtown commercial districts - but unfortunately, the routes suffer from a lot of stops and gos along the way, stalling pick up times and elongating rides. more ›