While many questions remained unanswered in the derailment of a northbound Amtrak commuter train in Philadelphia Tuesday night, here's what we know:
1. It originated in D.C. The train was scheduled to depart Washington's Union Station at 7:10 p.m. Tuesday. It was destined for New York City, with stops along the way.
2. It made stops in Maryland. After departing D.C., the train was slated for stops at New Carrolton (7:22 p.m.), Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport (7:37 p.m.), Penn Station (7:54 p.m.) and Aberdeen (8:16 p.m.). It then continued to Wilmington, Del. (8:43 p.m.) and Philadelphia (9:10 p.m.) before crashing on a large curved section of track shortly thereafter. Amtrak didn't immediately confirm that those stops were made or at what time the train actually arrived at each location.
3. The passengers. Of the 238 passengers and five crew members on board, six were confirmed dead early Wednesday, including a Midshipman from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Given the stops in Maryland, it is possible more passengers originated from scheduled stops in the state, though Amtrak did not immediately confirm the number of riders originating from those stations.
4. The cause? What prompted the cars to slow precipitously and jump the tracks wasn't immediately known Wednesday, but federal and local authorities were investigating. A black box on board the train was recovered.
5. Regional impact. It's not immediately known how the rail closure was impacting rail access to the port of Baltimore, but commercial travel was impacted a great deal. The Northeast Corridor, which runs from Washington to Boston, is the busiest stretch of passenger rail line in the country, serving 750,000 passengers and 2,000 commuter, intercity and freight trains per day, according to the Northeast Corridor Infrastructure and Operations Advisory Commission. Workers contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy every year, it said. That commission estimated a loss of service on the corridor on a single day would cost $100 million in delays and lost productivity.
6. Not the first. This isn't the first major crash on the Northeastern Corridor. The derailment was the deadliest incident involving an Amtrak train on the Corridor since the Maryland collision between an Amtrak train and a Conrail freight engine near Chase, in which 16 people were killed and another 175 were injured. A MARC train slammed into an Amtrak train in Silver Spring in 1996, killing 11. The curve at Frankford Junction in Philadelphia was the site of a 1943 crash, in which 79 people were killed when the Pennsylvania Railroad train derailed.
7. Rail infrastructure. The House was slated to cut $100 million in Amtrak funding Wednesday. Maryland is awaiting two major projects that would help alleviate bottlenecks on the busy commuter line between D.C. and Philadelphia. The Baltimore & Potomac Tunnel under West Baltimore, for instance, is 140 years old and a key choke point for Amtrak and other rail traffic, forcing trains to slow their speeds substantially. It has been slated to be replaced, though Amtrak officials have questioned whether funding will be provided to cover the estimated $1.5 billion price tag. A project to replace the Susquehanna River bridge between Harford and Cecil counties remains in the conceptual stages. Construction is more than a decade away.
