Maryland Transit Administration and Amtrak officials are trying to determine why a MARC train packed with about 1,000 commuters from Washington shut down Monday evening, leaving passengers stranded in the train in sweltering heat for about two hours.
MTA Administrator Ralign T. Wells said he spoke with the president of Amtrak Tuesday morning to express his concern about how the incident was handled. He said the MTA, Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration will launch of formal investigation of what happened.
Wells said the eight-car Train 538, pulled by a 10-year-old HHP electric engine, broke down shortly after leaving Washington for Perryville for undetermined reasons.
"We don't know exactly why it failed," Wells said. It was not clear Tuesday, he said, whether the problem might have been with the power lines or the engine itself.
The train stopped just short of New Carrollton on its way to Perryville on the Penn Line.
MTA spokesman Terry Owens initially said that train officials gave out water on some cars. "We carry water on trains in the summer and if there is an issue we had water out."
But passenger Bill Rowe of Towson said he did not see water being distributed by the MTA in his car. "Not a drop," he said. He estimated the temperature in the car "conservatively" at 110 degrees.
"Frankly if someone left their dog locked up in a car for 1 1/2 hours like this they would be arrested," said Rowe, who finally left the train and hiked to the Cheverly Metro station, where he got a ride.
Wells said the availability of water is something that MARC is investigating.
According to the Associated Press, Prince George's County Fire and EMS crews took two people to hospitals and treated others for heat-related problems.
In a statement, Wells promised to investigate.
"I can guarantee you that a full review of all operations, communications and technical issues will begin immediately to identify the cause of this evening's problem and improve the response of both Amtrak and MARC in the future," Wells said.
Wells indicated he was not happy with the performance of the Amtrak conductors during the breakdown.
"The conductors should have been keeping people informed," he said. "All indications are they have not met our expectations in communicating with our customers." Wells said the performance of the crew would be part of the investigation.
Wells said that after the first breakdown, Amtrak brought up a diesel that was expected to get the train moving but that a brake mechanism had tripped, making it impossible to move.
"Amtrak crews were optimistic they could get this thing going," the MTA chief said. "They may have let this go too long before they decided to come up with another plan."
Passenger Cheryl Harris, a government worker who lives in Baltimore but works in Washington, said the incident occurred about 10 minutes after the train left Union Station in the capital. She said the train shut down and the air conditioning system went off, prompting law enforcement officials to enter the train and open some windows.
At 8:13 p.m., about two hours after the train left the station, she said, "They just turned on the air conditioner and people who were outside are now getting back on, but we're not moving."
Harris said that when a relief train arrived, it was too small to accommodate all the passengers on the broken-down train. She said that among those left stranded outside the train were pregnant women and adults with children.
Rowe said that when he left the train, he saw five or six windows on another car pulled out "and people were hanging out of them."
"This situation turned into quite an emergency that really was badly handled by MARC," he said.
Wells acknowledged that either passengers or crews had at some point take out windows. "It wasn't busted out but the glass was removed," he said.
The MTA administrator said the relief train was able to pick up about 800 passengers but that there was no room for 100 or more. Some of them made their way to New Carrollton, where they were picked up by another train. Others, like Rowe, found other ways home.
.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.