Capital Beltway was a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...

in Lanham, Maryland. It was built in 1970 by the

Penn Central Transportation Company The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...

in partnership with the state of Maryland, the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the President of the United States a ...

(DOT), and

Prince George's County ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobrook ...

. The station was located on the Northeast Corridor approximately north of

Union Station A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Its purpose was to provide a stop near the

Capital Beltway The Capital Beltway is a Interstate Highway in the Washington metropolitan area that surrounds Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and its inner suburbs in adjacent Maryland and Virginia. It is the basis of the phrase " inside ...

ring-road for the new high-speed '' Metroliners''.

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

used the station until 1983 when New Carrollton opened to the south.

History

Capital Beltway station building, April 21, 1972

Capital Beltway was one of two

park-and-ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, rail system (rap ...

infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail, rapid transit, or light rail line to address demand in a location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train serv ...

s proposed in the 1960s for use by the new ''Metroliners'', the other being

Metropark station Metropark station is an intermodal transportation hub on the Northeast Corridor in the Iselin section of Woodbridge Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey that is located 24.6 miles southwest of New York Penn Station. It is owned and opera ...

Woodbridge Township, New Jersey Woodbridge Township is a township in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The township is both a regional hub for Central New Jersey and a major bedroom suburb of New York City in the New York metropolitan area located within the ...

. The two stations were originally named Capital Beltway Metropark and Garden State Metropark, though these were shortened to Capital Beltway and Metropark, respectively. Both were conceived as public-private partnerships. Discussion of the Capital Beltway project began in the mid-1960s before being approved at the end of 1968. The station was built with two

high-level platform Railway platform height is the built height – ''above top of rail (ATR)'' – of passenger platforms at stations. A connected term is ''train floor height'', which refers to the ATR height of the floor of rail vehicles. Worldwide, there are m ...

s, each long. The two platforms were linked by a pedestrian tunnel. The

head house A head house or headhouse may be an enclosed building attached to an open-sided shed, or the aboveground part of a subway station. Markets In the 18th and early 19th centuries, head houses were often civic buildings such as town halls or courtho ...

was a prefabricated building. Adjoining the station was a 200-space parking lot which could be expanded to 1000 spaces if traffic warranted. The station was located just off the Beltway to encourage

traffic. Maryland contributed the land for the station, valued at $500,000; DOT contributed $1 million to the project, mostly for physical infrastructure. The parking lot was built by Prince George's County at a cost of $150,000; the county also paid, at the outset, for a night watchman to guard the lot. As part of the project, several grade crossings were eliminated. The station opened on March 16, 1970, with Secretary of Transportation

John Volpe John Anthony Volpe (; December 8, 1908November 11, 1994) was an American businessman, diplomat, and politician from Massachusetts. A son of Italian immigrants, he founded and owned a large construction firm. Politically, he was a Republican in ...

in attendance. Although built as part of the ''Metroliner'' project, the station was served by conventional trains as well.

DC Transit Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962. The first streetcars in Washington, D.C., were drawn by horses and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of clean ...

and Greyhound Lines provided connecting bus service to Annapolis and Rockville, Maryland. Amtrak continued using Capital Beltway when it assumed control of Penn Central's passenger trains on May 1, 1971. Capital Beltway proved to be inadequate as a station: it was not handicapped accessible and its waiting room, as originally built, had seats for just ten people and no restrooms, with some of the interior space occupied by a bus ticketing office. After connecting bus service ended, this office was converted to restrooms. In August 1982, Conrail commuter trains (the future MARC Penn Line) began stopping at Capital Beltway; the nearby Lanham and Landover stations were closed. Amtrak and Conrail abandoned Capital Beltway on October 30, 1983, in favor of nearby New Carrollton, which had been a Washington Metro stop since 1978.

References

External links

* {{Amtrak Maryland stations Former Amtrak stations in Maryland Lanham, Maryland Railway stations in the United States opened in 1970 Railway stations closed in 1983 Stations on the Northeast Corridor Former Penn Central Transportation stations 1970 establishments in Maryland 1983 disestablishments in Maryland