Some passengers on an Amtrak train traveling between Boston and Washington, D.C., one week ago could have been exposed to measles from a person on board, health officials are warning.
The train, Amtrak’s Northeast Regional 175, left Boston at 3:15 p.m. on March 19, Amtrak officials said.
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health told the Globe it learned the infected person boarded at Penn Station in New York City.
Information provided by Amtrak and health officials indicates passengers who boarded the train in New England and got off before New York would not have faced exposure.
Amtrak public relations manager Jason Abrams told the Globe the train made 17 stops between Boston’s South Station and Washington’s Union Station, which is where the infected person got off the train, according to the Washington D.C. health department.
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“Amtrak is reaching out directly to customers who were on this train to notify them of possible exposure,” said Abrams, who referred further questions to the DC Department of Health.
People on the train between 7:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. could have been exposed to measles, Washington’s public health department said in a warning released Tuesday.
There are two other “potential exposure sites associated with this case of measles,” said DC Health in a statement, warning of the “highly contagious illness.”
People in Union Station’s Amtrak concourse between 11 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday night are being warned of potential measles exposure, the department said.
After riding the train on March 19, the person with measles checked into an urgent care clinic in northwest Washington around 7 p.m. on March 22, DC Health said, and patients there through 11 p.m. are affected by the exposure warning.
The Washington Post reported the person with measles had received a vaccine. They’re recovering and have not been hospitalized, DC’s chief epidemiologist, Brittani Saafir-Callaway, told the Post.
During its Wednesday route the Amtrak train made the following stops, Abrams said:
- Boston South Station
- Boston Back Bay Station
- Route 128 Station in Westwood, Mass.
- Providence Station
- Kingston, RI
- Mystic, RI
- New London Union Station in Connecticut
- Old Saybrook, Connecticut
- New Haven Union Station
- Stamford, Connecticut
- New York Penn Station
- Newark Penn Station
- Metropark, NJ
- Trenton
- Philadelphia 30th Street Station
- Wilmington, Del.
- Baltimore Penn Station
- Baltimore BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport
- Washington Union Station
The public health scare potentially affecting train passengers from multiple states comes as measles has been making a resurgence in the US since being declared eliminated in 2000. This year, the virus that spreads via coughing and sneezing has been linked to two deaths, one in Texas and another in New Mexico, officials said.
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The Boston Public Health Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not immediately respond to request for comment.
People who have never received a measles vaccine and were on board the train or at Union Station late Wednesday night “may be at risk of developing measles,” the health department warned.
However, people who have received “two doses of a measles containing vaccine, or were born before 1957... are protected and do not need to take any action,” if they were on board the train, the health department said.
The measles case on the train comes as cases of the viral infection are up in 2025 compared to last year, according to CDC data.
As of March 20, there were 378 cases of measles confirmed in 17 states and New York City, according to the CDC. While Massachusetts had no confirmed cases by that date, officials in Rhode Island, Vermont, and New York State confirmed cases of measles, the CDC said.
Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto.