Two Baggage cars on Amtrak train 92, The SILVER STAR, derailed just north of Washington Union Station around 3 p.m. this afternoon. The Derailment occurred at track 25/26, and blocked all tracks to the station's lower level, which primarily serves southbounds and through trains.

No one was injured, but train service in and out of Union Station including those operated by Amtrak, Virginia Railway Express, and MARC - has been affected. Amtrak crews are working to rerail the cars. The cause of the incident has not yet been determined.

So I rode Metro from Crystal City to Franconia-Springfield, then got in the enormous line for buses to Fredericksburg. It moved fairly well, though, and I spend about 45 minutes in line. The afternoon temperature had been near 100, but fortunately the shade from the parking garage was reaching the area of the line about the time I arrived.

I rode a Metrobus, which took about half an hour longer than VRE to reach Fredericksburg.

I think that VRE did well enough under the circumstances. Amtrak, though, did not communicate well. There was nothing on the train status page of their website to indicate that trains were delayed indefinitely or annulled, even when I queried about specific southbound evening trains. This morning, the VRE website said Amtrak was substituting buses for trains 84 and 86. Again, nothing on the Amtrak website to indicate this, and no Amtrak announcements at Fredericksburg (there never are, unless knowledgeable passengers make them). When the bus for 84 pulled in half an hour behind 84's time, the driver spent about 10 minutes trying to locate any Amtrak passengers waiting for 84 (the train platform is upstairs). VRE train 310 departed about 20 minutes after the bus; I saw the same bus again at Alexandria. I'm pretty sure the VRE train got to Washington Union Station first.

VRE also has a contract for emergency bus service (they don't have to use it) but in case of emergency they can give the word and put the plan into action.