(The following story by Jeremy Slayton, Emily C. Dooley and Michael Martz appeared on the Richmond Times-Dispatch website on March 28.)
RICHMOND, Va. — Amtrak is expecting delays and possible cancellations today after a freight train derailed just north of Richmond early yesterday, closing two tracks for more than 14 hours.
By midafternoon, one track was open, allowing freight and passenger service to pass through the Richmond area.
It was not clear what residual delays might exist for passenger travel today because trains might not be in position to make their normal routes. It also was not known when the other track will reopen.
Amtrak is advising Richmond-area passengers with flexible schedules to hold off on travel until the weekend.
Much of today’s morning service will depend on freight traffic.
An estimated 2,500 passengers along the Eastern seaboard were affected yesterday when a CSX freight train derailed at 12:18 a.m. about 500 yards north of the Amtrak Station on Staples Mill Road.
The derailed train was southbound from Cumberland, Md., to Rocky Mount, N.C., with three locomotives pulling 81 freight cars.
CSX Transportation spokesman Gary Sease said four of the company’s freight trains were re-routed yesterday.
Passengers on the Virginia Railway Express commuter trains in Northern Virginia were not delayed and should not expect a disruption of service today unless freight traffic clogs up the tracks, said Mark Roeber, VRE’s manager of public affairs and government relations.
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Freight traffic tends to be heavy at night. If trains are slowed because only one track is open near Richmond or because of heavy traffic, that could affect the morning commute.
“If they don’t get all of those trains through, there is some potential that those trains will be in our way,” Roeber said.
Passenger trains typically use tracks owned by freight companies.
“In most situations, passenger service is a very small part of what operates on the line,” White said.
No one was injured in the derailment, which occurred when the third locomotive and 14 cars jumped the tracks, including four empty hazardous-materials cars.
Three cars carrying sodium chlorate, an oxidizer used in paper bleaching, derailed, spilling about 2 pounds of the chemical. A car carrying sodium hydroxide also derailed but did not lose any of its cargo.
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While passengers had to change travel plans, most took the inconvenience in stride.
“It’s not really their fault. These things happen,” said Alisha Ferrell, who lives in Richmond but is a graduate student at Georgetown University in Washington. She travels by train twice a week to attend classes.
Sease said the company does not know the cause of the accident but would focus its investigation on the tracks, the rail cars and the train’s operation.
“That’s a high-volume line for us, both freight and passenger,” he said.
CSX owns and maintains 1,000 miles of track in Virginia. Each year, about 240,000 carloads of freight run on those tracks, according to a CSX state profile found on its Web site.
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The Federal Railroad Administration had investigators on site, conducting a preliminary investigation into the accident, spokesman Warren Flatau said.
“Within the time of being on scene, we can determine within a day if something more extensive is needed,” he said.
Amtrak canceled three northbound regional trains between Richmond/Newport News and Washington as well as trains that run between New York City and Savannah, Ga.
A segment of the trains that run between New York and Charlotte, N.C., was canceled. Those trains, 79 and 80, operated only between New York and Washington and Charlotte and Raleigh, N.C., yesterday. These routes, as well as a New York to Miami train and the auto train between Lorton and Sanford, Fla., could see delays today.
Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero said the company worked with yesterday’s passengers to help them get to their destinations.
Five 47-passenger buses from James River Bus Lines took passengers from a northbound train from Miami to Union Station in Washington. Buses also were supplied at other locations but were not able to accommodate every passenger, Romero said.
The bus line has not been asked to transport passengers today, said Greg Treanor, director of sales and marketing.
Train accidents declined last year compared with 2006, the U.S. Department of Transportation said recently. In 2007, preliminary data show 40 train accidents in Virginia, down 13 from 2006.