(The following story by Chuanpis Santilukka appeared on the St. Cloud Times website on December 20.)
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Residents may see more trains in the next couple of days because of the 11 rail cars that derailed on a major track Sunday in St. Cloud.
More trains will be running to make up for shipment delays after cars No. 22 through 32 derailed in a 36-car train shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, said Steve Forsberg, general director of public affairs for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
Exactly how many trains could pass through is unknown. Normal traffic yields 40 to 50 trains a day.
The cause of the accident is unknown, although Burlington Northern officials are concentrating on the condition of the tracks, Forsberg said.
The derailment closed two main tracks near the Lincoln Depot restaurant for most of Sunday on the city’s East Side. Train track No. 2 opened at 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Forsberg said. Train track No. 1 opened at 11:30 a.m. Monday.
The wreckage stretched from Seventh Street Southeast to about Fifth Street Northeast. The Seventh Street crossing was closed Monday afternoon as crews worked on the rails.
The track is the main line between the Twin Cities and the Pacific Northwest.
A recent inspection flagged a problem with one of the rails, and trains traveling on it were ordered to run more slowly as a result.
“It’s kind of like finding a pothole on a street and putting a speed restriction on it,” Forsberg said.
The company owns the tracks and is responsible for maintenance. Damage estimates weren’t available Monday.
Cause unknown
While derailments are uncommon, Forsberg said they’re usually caused by one of three things: impaired tracks, faulty equipment on a car (such as a bearing burning or a wheel breaking) or crew error.
Inspectors are concentrating on the tracks as a cause, although a final determination could take months, Forsberg said.
“One (derailment) is one too many as far as we’re concerned,” Forsberg said. “But if you’re going to have one, the most important thing is that there are no safety issues, injuries or hazardous materials spilled. And that’s what we had here.”
Fire officials examined a company manifest that listed all of the cars’ contents, and crews went through the cars to make sure nothing hazardous spilled, assistant fire chief Leon Faust said. The department’s hazardous materials team also was at the scene for a couple of hours to make sure everything was fine.
Batteries and caps used for cap guns were the more dangerous items aboard, but they survived the accident intact, Faust said.
Other effects
Burlington Northern wasn’t the only business affected by the derailment.
Amtrak’s Chicago-based spokesman Marc Magliari said passenger trains for the company’s service were disrupted. A popular route that goes between Chicago and Seattle stops in St. Cloud and usually carries several hundred passengers. Passengers traveling east Sunday were unloaded at the St. Cloud station and delivered to destinations as far as Milwaukee via bus, Marcie Golgoski, a Washington-based spokeswoman said.
Amtrak will be responsible for the cost incurred, Magliari said.
The eastbound Amtrak train was scheduled to arrive at 5:11 a.m. in St. Cloud, shortly after the accident occurred, but was delayed by more than an hour. It was somewhere between Detroit Lakes and Staples at the time, Magliari said.
Another Amtrak train traveling west goes through St. Cloud at about 12:40 a.m. daily, according to Amtrak’s Web site. That train was slightly delayed Monday due to congestion from the accident, Magliari said.
Xcel Energy has coal delivered to its Sherco Plant through the line, but the slight delays won’t be a problem because the plant has a stockpile that can last for up to 45 days, spokesman Paul Adelmann said.
Forsberg said the 12- to 18-hour shipment delays would probably be the biggest hiccup for Burlington Northern. Peak season for the company goes from mid-fall through Christmas, he said.
“I won’t say our traffic is quite back to normal yet,” Forsberg said. “This line is the equivalent of a four-lane freeway for us.”