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.
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.
There was no immediate word on when passenger rail traffic through Baltimore would resume. Passengers were being bused between the stops at Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Penn Station. A crew specializing in re-railing cars was on its way to the city from Pennsylvania late last night, said Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman.
As investigators for Amtrak, the Federal Railroad Administration and National Transportation Safety Board began investigating the collision, Black acknowledged that the Maryland Rail Commuter train had the right-of-way as it was pulling away from the downtown rail station.
The northbound Amtrak train, the Palmetto, 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 seven-car MARC train - none of them in the 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 halt service between Washington and Wilmington. The service that resumed last night, with riders bused between BWI and Baltimore, entailed substantial delays.
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 MTA 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.
Bond said the MTA is not drawing any conclusions about the cause of the accident.
Officials were not certain early last night how the accident would affect morning travel. "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.
Sun staff writers Del Quentin Wilber and Johnathon E. Briggs contributed to this article.