OTOL Washington, DC Area RailFest 2015 was a return visit to the Washington, DC area to ride the rails. New to our group was Phase I of the Metro Silver Line to Wiehle/Reston East. Unfortunately the first restored streetcar line wasn't available to ride by the time of our Fest, although it was observed running in frequent, mock non-revenue service.
One day (Saturday) was also spent riding MARC weekend service, some MTA Maryland light rail and heavy rail lines in the Baltimore area, along with a return trip on an Amtrak Regional train.
Since the original announcement of this Fest, the itinerary was updated to omit the streetcar and focus more on Metro rail lines. It had to be rewritten yet another time while en route to the Fest to accommodate the late schedule changes that weekend Metro trackwork projects required.
The people who were in town early enough on Friday did meet for dinner at Union Station, and some went for lunch as late as Monday before departing the area.
Our Fest included a total of 21 people over the entire weekend, with a two peaks of 20 on Saturday, and one peak of 16 on Sunday.
On this weekend event, the intent was NOT to provide full coverage of particular rail lines. It was impossible to ride every inch of the Washington Metro, Balitmore Metro, Baltimore Light Rail, and MARC Commuter Rail. The itinerary followed tried to get a representative sampling of each element of the rail trasit infrastructure. Our goal was to ride different rail transit lines during the short available daylight hours, while keeping our outdoor waiting time in the cold weather to a mimimum.
| OTOL WASHINGTON, DC AREA RAILFEST 2015 | |
|---|---|
| List of participants | Updated 1/19/15 |
| Itinerary | Updated 1/24/15 |
| Links to other sites | Updated 12/8/14 |
| Scanner frequencies | Updated 12/8/14 |