(The Battle Creek Enquirer posted the following article by Nick Schirripa on its website on October 22.)
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Scores of passengers sat calmly on the Amtrak train as emergency personnel hurried about.
Flashing lights on police and fire vehicles cast red and yellow beams across neighboring houses and the side of the train as the railroad crossing warning bell cut through the air.
Amtrak Train 351, carrying about 100 passengers and crew members, derailed Tuesday morning on the Canadian National tracks across Elm Street, just south of Michigan Avenue and west of the Kraft food plant.
About 100 yards east of where the railroad tracks cross Elm Street, the last two cars of the train sat askew, derailed and leaning slightly.
“It looks like the train was going slow — about 9 mph or 10 mph — because there is some work being done on the tracks,” said Battle Creek Police Cmdr. Jackie Hampton. “These trains can go as fast as 60 mph or so.”
Hampton said the two cars derailed shortly before 11 a.m. on the way to Chicago, and there were no injuries, mostly because the train was traveling so slowly.
Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak, said an investigation into the derailment is ongoing, and Amtrak is working with Canadian National to determine the cause.
Some of the passengers who weren’t in either of the derailed cars said they weren’t even aware of the derailment when it happened
One passenger walked quickly away from the train, bags in hand. “Not waiting around,” he said before hustling off.
Another passenger leaned out of the train and took a picture of the two derailed cars.
One passenger said he was headed to Chicago for a 2 p.m. appointment.
“There is no customer service on this train,” he said. “I’ve waited four months for this doctor’s appointment, and they can’t even tell us what’s going on here.”
Emergency personnel on the scene said the two derailed cars were being disconnected, and passengers transferred to the remaining three passenger cars for the rest of the trip to Chicago.
“I would certainly like to apologize to that customer for any inconvenience,” Magliari said.
Derailments are more frequent with freight trains than passenger trains, Magliari said, and it is not unusual to have few or no injuries with passenger-train derailments.
“These are pretty durable pieces of equipment,” he said. “In reality we do not have many derailments that result in huge numbers of injured passengers. If you had to put this one on a spectrum, it’s definitely a one instead of a 10.”
“There’s no such thing as a moderate derailment,” said Dan Stessel, an Amtrak corporate communications official.
Stessel said five trains, other than the derailed train, were affected. Passengers were being bused between Jackson and Battle Creek, and between Kalamazoo and Dowagiac, to avoid the section of track affected.
The track will be repaired and trains will be running normal schedules soon, he said.
Attempts to contact officials with Canadian National railroad to determine the effect on freight traffic through downtown Battle Creek were unsuccessful.
Other derailments have been reported near Elm Street on the Canadian National tracks. Between 1995 and 1998, three freight trains derailed near the Community Action Agency of South Central Michigan offices. On Dec. 17, 2000, an Amtrak train derailed as it pulled into the station in Battle Creek in a heavy snowstorm. No injuries were reported in that derailment, either.