All MARC and Amtrak train services between Baltimore and Washington were operating normally a day after an April 29 water main break in Halethorpe caused service suspensions.

According to Jawauna Greene, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, MARC services were "up and running" later that night and no major delays were reported on April 30.

Amtrak services between Baltimore and Washington also returned to normal operations, according to Amtrak's Web site.

Kurt Kocher, a spokesman for the Baltimore Public Works Department, which maintains the pipe that burst, said crews will continue to work in the area fixing the pipe.

The water main break along Washington Boulevard in Halethorpe forced six area schools to close and halted MARC and Amtrak train services up and down the Penn Line.

Kocher said the 36-inch main broke shortly before dawn Wednesday morning.

At midday, he said water was "shooting out of the ground and creating a river."

Kocher said preliminary evaluations suggested the pipe was a pre-stressed concrete pipe installed in the 1970s and called the break "less an aging issue than a manufacturing defect that's affected this whole country."

Such pipes have caused widespread problems across the country in recent years due to a "manufacturing defect," he said.

Various transportation, water and public works agencies responded to the scene, with Public Works having to split its resources between this break and another large water main break in downtown Baltimore, Kocher said.

The Baltimore County school system said Arbutus Middle School closed at 9:30 a.m., while Arbutus Elementary, Halethorpe Elementary, the Maiden Choice Center and Relay Elementary closed at 10 a.m.

United Cerebral Palsy's Delray School on Commerce Drive in Lansdowne also closed at 9:30 a.m.

The Maryland Transit Administration suspended MARC train services between Baltimore and Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport.

Some rush-hour riders leaving Baltimore's Penn Station were bused to Odenton, where trains were brought in to take riders on to Washington.

Amtrak suspended all service between Baltimore and Washington as of 7:45 a.m. April 29 so crews could work to remove mud, trees and other debris from tracks, according to the system's Web site.

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