Involved almost constantly with wrapping up previous railfests and planning our big summer gathering Eagle Railfest 2005, I have taken on yet another event, to take place just 5 weeks later.

OTOL Washington RailFest 2005 will be held on Friday, August 26th and Saturday, August 27th. It will feature riding the entire Metrorail heavy rail system, as well as rides that sample both Virginia Railway Express and MARC. In order to be able to ride those commuter railroads, we need to schedule this fest for a Friday and Saturday, rather than Saturday-Sunday. We will do VRE and MARC on Friday, and the Metro on Saturday. That is why this is being held during the summer, to be able to meet on a Friday when most people won't be bound to school or college obligations and some might easily take a summer Friday off from work.

There is already a full website dedicated to this fest. The homepage has links to the usual restaurant and hotel listings, the itinerary, projected guest list, and other features.

The official fest activities begin midday on Friday when we begin riding VRE followed by MARC. That means you have a choice of going to the Washington area either Thursday evening or Friday morning. Remember if you leave your origin station on Friday morning before 9 AM you avoid the weekend "peak" ticket surcharge. On Saturday it will take a good portion of the day to do the Metro system. The itinerary has been planned to minimize riding segments more than once wherever possible.

One main feature will be the last extension to open, the Blue Line beyond Addison Road-Seat Pleasant to Largo Town Center. Many of you have not yet ridden this new segment of trackage. I have scheduled this segment late in the day, so that we can combine it with dinner at the adjacent Boulevard at Capitol Centre, namely a Golden Corral buffet. Following this, participants from outside the Washington area can either head home from New Carrollton or Union Station, or stay Saturday evening and head home early Sunday morning.

Therefore you may require anywhere from one to three nights in hotels in the Washington, DC area. Careful and advance planning should yield the best rate to suit your budget.

If you would like to join us for this visit to our nation's capitol, please e-mail me so I can put your name on the guest list.

Please keep Friday, August 26th and Saturday, August 27th open on your calendars for Washington, DC RailFest 2005. We will ride the entire Metro system on Saturday, and also ride one MARC and one VRE line on Friday.

One change to the itinerary that I am contemplating is a revision to the last portion on Saturday, where we have dinner in Largo and then complete the Metro riding by going up to New Carrollton. The problem is that some of you may wish to ride premium Amtrak services, either Acela Express (if some service has been restored by then) or its replacement Metroliner or Regional service. Some premium trains are not scheduled to stop at New Carrollton, so this cannot be planned upon as a way to depart the area for points north. So the change I am considering would have us ride the Orange Line to New Carrollton first, and then come back to Stadium/Armory and ride the Blue Line to Largo. This would make dinnertime a little later, but we would be done earlier with our Metro riding (except for returning to Union Station). We could then catch a later train out of Union Station, or elect to remain in town until Sunday morning.

I would have loved to join y'all. But unfortunately I will be taking a marathon 18.5 hour flight from Newark to Singapore starting Friday evening and ending sometime during Saturday afternoon NY time and Sunday early morning Singapore time. So I guess I will just enjoy the Executive Coach seat on a Singapore Airlines Airbus 340-500 and then later do a one person fest riding around on Singapore MRT while you guys enjoy riding around in Washington

Rats, we needed somebody to watch our luggage.... (just kidding!)

Have a good time in Singapore. We're sorry you can't join us in Washington.