Silver SpringTrain Accident

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On February 16, 1996, during the Friday evening rush hour, an eastbound MARC train headed to Washington Union Station collided with the westbound Amtrak Capitol Limited headed to Chicago via Pittsburgh. The collision occurred at Georgetown Junction on a snow-swept stretch of track just west of Silver Spring, Maryland. The crash left 11 people dead aboard the MARC train. Three died of injuries suffered in the impact, with the rest succumbed to the ensuing smoke and flames; the MARC engineer and two conductors were among the dead.

The NTSB report concluded that the MARC crew apparently forgot the restricting signal aspect of the Kensington color-position signal after making a flag stop at Kensington Station. The engineer of the Capitol Limited also apparently increased speed rather than braking in an attempt to make the crossover. The MARC train was operating in push mode with the cab control car out front. The Amtrak locomotives were in the crossover at the time of the collision; the MARC cab control car collided with the lead Amtrak unit, an F40PH, rupturing its fuel tank and igniting the fire that caused most of the casualties. The second Amtrak unit was a GE Genesis P40DC, a newer unit that has a fuel tank that is shielded in the center of the frame, so a few seconds' difference might have prevented the fire. The official investigation also suggests that the accident might have been prevented if a human-factors analysis had been conducted when modifications to the track signaling system were made in 1985.