Baltimore to DC Daytrip

[The Metropolitan]

All Aboard - A DC Daytrip...

My DC Paraphenalia

I haven't been aboard Amtrak in over 4 months, and I haven't been to DC in nearly 6 months, so both are about due...

It's a trip similar to many I've taken before. However, nearly all of my prior trips were on Weekdays when MARC is running. This being a Saturday, we'll be taking AMTRAK for our daytrip in DC. Photos are a mix of those taken with a cell phone cam and my Canon S1 - whichever was more appropriate/inconspicuous for the situation at hand at the time...

Awaken at 6:45am, and call my travelling companion, who confirms she'll be ready to go. Out the door at 8:02, I begin the 20 minute walk to the only transit service in my area with any sort of regular headway on weekends - the light rail line. About 3 blocks into the walk, I hear a rumbling sound coming from behind me, and look back to see a NABI #33 Bus, #9844 coming up behind me, right as I'm at the bus stop - how's that for good luck! I pick up the bus to get a quick ride to the light rail stop, and alight just a few minutes later - It's now about 8:13am.

Ease down the ramp to the platform to see that I've likely just missed the Southbound train. Finally, about 8:34am, my inbound train comes, and I'm heading in the right direction.

The light rail line follows the path of the former PRR "Northern Central" route. Where I board was once known as Melvale, and was a local stop used only in the earlier years.

I make my way inward three stops on the light rail, following along a route that once hosted PRR passenger trains reaching St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Harrisburg. Those days waned by the 50's and vanished entirely on A-Day, and today, the line serves as our light rail line, running as far north as Hunt Valley. After passing Woodberry, the line even passes some long disused PRR catenary towers that were once used to reach the Mt. Vernon yard, which is now occupied by an NS Flexi-flow yard and the Light Rail Service yard. Passing this yard, the line rises and briefly straddles the old "HI-Line" alignment at North Avenue before snaking around over the CSX Beltline and under the Howard Street Bridge before stopping at Mt. Royal Station, which is where I shall alight - it is now 8:48am.

Since my friend has not arrived yet, I take the time to cross the street and peruse the old Mount Royal Station of the B&O, a rather duplicative terminal built in a romanesque style. This terminal closed in 1958, and had been endangered, but now belongs to the Maryland Institute College of Art. It's Train Shed is the only surviving one in the city, and likely in the state!

ex-B&O Mount Royal Station's tower, and the beginning of the covered walkway leading to the trainshed below.

The terminal building - the trainshed is partially visible to the right.

Covered Stairway leading to platform level under the train shed.

Platform level, where B&O trains once boarded for Philadelphia and "New York" as well as Cumberland, Pittsburgh, and even Chicago. Portal to the Howard Street tunnel is visible in background.

I make my way down to trackside, and snap some photos, only to turn around and climb the stairs, when once again, I hear RUMBLING behind me! Is this the Royal Blue bound for New York? - nah - just a frieght passing through. I videograph the train coming through and return to the light rail station. At 8:54am, my companion's train comes in, and she alights - we cross the tracks to take advantage of the shuttle to Penn Station.

Northbound train coming into the new "Mt. Royal" Station with the former station visible behind.

9:03 am and the shuttle train arrives. We sit for about 3 minutes and lift off for the short ride to Penn Station - aside from the Operator, we're the only folks aboard. At 9:08, we pull into Penn Station, where 4 others are waiting to board coming out.

Shuttle train at the single track platform closest to the terminal building. For years this was a dowdy unused track before light rail's arrival regenerated it's use.

We rise the stairs and make our way into the concourse to await our train #131, due at 9:23am. A Police Officer takes his dog around the terminal, but is quite nice to to people who chit chat with him, which tends to ease the tension. The Solari Board registers that our train is still ON TIME, but it is not until 9:21am when the status board flips to ALL ABOARD, and we can make our way down to the usual thru platform.

Penn Station is fairly quiet this morning.

Amtrak #131 glides into Penn Station with a very healthy load aboard.

Despite the ON TIME status, #131 pulls into Penn Station at 9:30 on the dot - seven minutes down, but still fine. Though I expected the train to be reasonable loadwise, since it was the only $13 fare (1st bucket) I saw online, it is very very FULL, somewhere between 90 and 95%. My companion and I manage to get one pair of seats, but its the rear facing pair at the rear of the last active car (the last car is blocked off), after passing through three cars that were filled almost to the gills. It looks like about 30 people alighted, but that about 50 are boarding.

We launch off and jostle through the throat into the B&P tubes, as the Conductor makes her rounds. Finally, once clearing the tunnels, it's time to pick up a little speed, which we do for a spell before easing up for the stop at BWI, which, due to platform work, is made on the CENTER track at the emergency (low) platform. This takes some time, so it's a little while before we kick off again, but we make good time to New Carrollton, our last stop before DC, where platform work is also being performed.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Before long, we're passing the New York Avenue yards, indicating that the first leg of our "journey" is wrapping up- the crowds hastily bundle up their baggage and stand in the aisles in the haste of trying to make a fast exit. We're in no hurry, so we opt to relax. At 10:14am, we pull to a stop at Washington DC, and casually make our way out of our Amfleet I.

Amtrak #131 now at Union Station DC.

Down the platform we go, and enter directly into the Metro Station to get our fare cards for the ride to Woodley Park-Adams Morgan on the Red Line. Since the day is somewhat overcast but mild, we opt to take in the Zoo, expecting to get some food later, and then make our way to the Smithsonian. But time gets away from us.

10:21 - we board our Red Line train.

I'm not used to Red Line Trains having this much space.

10:33 - we alight at Woodley Park.

Durned Cell Phone Camera.

10:45 - we enter the Zoo, and make our way around - I check time periodically, the last time of which is

Guess you were expecting a Panda Shot? I'm from Balmer, Hon, so it's gotta be Pink Flamingos!

12:13. Though it seems little time has passed since, I make another check expecting it to be about 12:50, and it's now 1:37! And we haven't eaten yet, while our train out leaves at 4:00 - we make a few more quick stops before rolling out of the back gate of the Zoo onto Harvard Street, and with some trial and error, finally find our way onto Columbia Road to reach Adams Morgan. We arrive at Meskerem (Ethiopian) at about 2:10pm, and we're thirsty and starving, and exhausted!

Ethopian Comfort Food - It is SO Good!

Its Yassa Watt for her and Shrimp Alitcha for me. Food arrives at 2:27. We devour the goods pretty handily with the enjereh, but this only adds to our tiredness, and we slowly make our way out at 2:50 in order to catch our bus back to the Metro. Typically, we're leisurely about this, but since we certainly want to make our next train, and we're worn down, we make haste for the #42 stop.

The one DC bus shot I managed to muster. I think I only saw all of about 8 buses the entire time I was in DC.

However, we just miss one - a low floor 2300 Orion. We expect to wait 10 minutes, but at 2:58, we get the pleasant suprise of bus #2221 (Orion) coming south as the next #42. As we usually do this on a Weekday, we get the pleasant surprise of a nearly empty bus - a welcome departure from the usual capacity loads. Our ride on this is brief but vital. It is walkable to Dupont Circle, but in our condition now, the $1.25 is well worth it, as we're on the down escalator at 3:04pm.

The last couple times I rode the #42 (on a weekday) it was swamped - what a nice change!

Down on of Metro's famous "Stairways to Heaven."

After getting a new farecard and tagging on an extra nickel to give us a souvenir, we head to the platform and find our next train should be here in 4 minutes. Indeed it is, and once again, we're on our way. The train gets crowded for a brief bit, but again is a welcome change from the usual weekdays of near crush loads. Both of our METRO trains consisted of the older cars with the orange interiors - didn't bother to get car numbers, but seem to remember one being in the 3000s.

At 3:21, we alight the METRO at Union, and my companion, despite being full from Watt, picks up some Pretzel sticks and a Fruit Punch from Auntie Anne's in Union Station. We find our train to be listed at F18, and make our way to the boarding area, passing another waiting area with what looks like over 100 people waiting to board the CAPITOL LIMITED (and I assume these to be Coach riders) towards Chicago. Our waiting area is not nearly so crowded, with about 50 people.

Boarding area in DC. The area in the background had just recently been full of people waiting for the Capitol Limited.

 

[The Metropolitan]

We await our call for Boarding, and finally, just before 3:45, a gate Attendant lets us make our way to the Acela Express for boarding. We can't help but to look a bit confused as there are two Acelas in front of us - but we quickly realize that the one on the right has just arrived, so we'll be boarding the one on the right.

A lot of comings and goings on the platform, as we board while another train has just arrived.

One of the neat (but likely expensive) touches.

This being my very first ride on Acela Express, I'm more than a bit curious about it - we board the second car from the rear and take our seats - unlike the packed train of this morning, this one winds up looking about 40% full when we roll out.

After taking our seats, we figure out how to recline and set up the leg rests. Once this is done, my companion quickly relaxes and falls fast asleep before we even leave the station! I grab a few pictures, mostly with my phone.

The riders start to fill the Acela Seats.

Like a well choreographed drill, at PRECISELY 4:00pm, the announcement comes on that the doors are closing, and we launch off. Our Conductor makes a very professional announcement as we leave, largely detailing the availability and use of the quiet car. It seems that Amtrak does indeed take pride in this train, and this is seen in the Employee's attitudes.

The train ride itself does seem pretty smooth, as we're even sitting just above the trucks, but it doesn't seem to kick in until NOW when I'm writing this. We glide into BWI right on time and make our stop, and we're on our way again. One minor gripe, the display boards at the end of the car continue to read NEXT STOP BWI AIRPORT after we leave that station. It's still there when we leave the train, which is right on time into Baltimore, at precisely 4:35. The train wastes little time picking up its 20 or so riders and rolling off. We're likely the only two people getting off at Baltimore from this train as most would simply opt for the much more affordable regional.

Back home in B-more.

I'd take the Acela Express again, though I do wish it were more affordable. It does offer a nice glimpse of how nice the next generation of Amtrak equipment can be.

Leaving out, we once again roll out on the Penn Shuttle, which is waiting at the platform, and we're off at Mount Royal. While I do miss two NB Light Rail trains in seeing my companion off on her Southbound train, I'm in no severe hurry to return home. After seeing her off, I do get one guy who pops up and starts bumming people for money for a daypass. Not too long though before a Timonium train does finally arrive, and I head back to Cold Spring Station. No luck on the spontaneous #33 like I had with the trip down, and this equates to a 25 minute walk that involves a steep hill.

Today was a good day on transit - we never encountered any delays of note, and all of our trips were civil and enjoyable - never heard one complaint the entire time. A good day all the way around - good company - good food, and good transportation, without ever turning an igntion key.

 

[AlanB]

Metropolitan,

Thanks for a neat report! I glad you got your first Acela ride out of this too.

In an interesting twist, I myself was just down in your neck of the woods riding some of those same trains on Wednesday and Thursday of last week for the OTOL MARF.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Thanks Alan.

The Acela was really pretty neat, and my friend said the seats were reallllll comfy - guess so, she was asleep for the whole ride back!

Maybe after a tax refund or something, I could see using it for another daytrip north on a weekend just to have a treat!

When you all were in Baltimore, please PLEASE tell me you purchased daypasses! I looked at your expected itinerary and costs for the Baltimore portion of your trip and saw each trip audited separately!

Also, I hope you were actually able to get your lunch in at Owings Mills Malls, as that to me is one of the most transit unfriendly arrangements I know of, and they are less than amiable about people walking between the mall and the station - to me Hunt Valley would have been a far better lunch stop!

One other little tidbit about the DC trip - In the subway, they have two "tunnel ads" for Eastbound Red Line trains - lit still photos that appear to move as you watch it from the moving train. If anyone is interested, I have a video of it here...

http://monumentalcity.net/phpBB/files/tunnelad_131.wmv

 

[AlanB]

When you all were in Baltimore, please PLEASE tell me you purchased daypasses! I looked at your expected itinerary and costs for the Baltimore portion of your trip and saw each trip audited separately!

You just didn't dig deep enough through Kevin's pages. He always lists the individual fares first, in part as a way to compare, in part because sometimes people will only join us for one or two rides. However, if you look deeper on his pages, you will find that he also has an analysis for using the daypass, which is indeed what we all brought.

Also, I hope you were actually able to get your lunch in at Owings Mills Malls, as that to me is one of the most transit unfriendly arrangements I know of, and they are less than amiable about people walking between the mall and the station - to me Hunt Valley would have been a far better lunch stop!

Nope, lunch at Owings Mills was a bust. Between the contruction of the new parking garage, people dragging suitcases and such, we quickly gave up on that idea. Instead we rode the Metro back downtown and went to Lexington Market for lunch.

 

[The Metropolitan]

Nope, lunch at Owings Mills was a bust. Between the contruction of the new parking garage, people dragging suitcases and such, we quickly gave up on that idea. Instead we rode the Metro back downtown and went to Lexington Market for lunch.

When I saw that on the itinerary, it looked to me like a disaster waiting to happen. Lexington Market probably offered more authentic and certainly more affordable fare, even if you probably got a good bit more noise and surlier service in the process!

Glad you had a good adventure here though!

 

[Superliner Diner]

Last time I was at Owings Mills, I recall scooting between some bushes to walk between the mall itself and the station parking lot. Now there appears to be not only the construction blocking the way but some big box type stores in between the station and mall properties. Alan also noticed a wall that would have been hard for us to scale even if we didn't have suitcases.