MERCED, Calif. — A Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway train with four locomotives and 60 freight cars derailed nine cars at about 11:30 a.m. Thursday on the tracks running parallel to Santa Fe Drive, just south of Bellevue Road. No injuries were reported, according to the Sun-Star.
Bellevue Road was closed at the intersection, and one lane of Santa Fe Drive was temporarily shut down to make way for heavy railroad machinery.
Drivers slowed to a near stop as they passed the scene near Castle Airport Aviation and Development Center. Several boxcars, some on their side, were strewn across the tangled tracks. Overturned cars also blocked a parallel set of tracks on a siding.
Three California Department of Forestry fire engines responded and inspected the train to make sure there were no hazardous material leaks.
Nine cars near the rear of the train derailed, and three contained a non-toxic roofing material, according to Lena Kent, a BNSF spokeswoman.
A number of cars closer to the front of the train contained hazardous materials, but none were damaged. Kent said she doesn’t know what the materials are.
The train, almost one-mile long, had originated in Barstow and was destined for Vancouver, Wash.
The siding tracks were to be opened by evening, Kent said, and that would allow resumption of Amtrak San Joaquin passenger service. All San Joaquin Valley Amtrak routes travel along the BNSF lines where the derailment took place, according to Amtrak spokeswoman Sarah Swain.
“We’re providing alternative transportation around the area,” she said Thursday afternoon. Some passengers were being bused as far as Fresno or Stockton to board trains at other stations.
Swain said four Amtrak trains were waiting for the wreckage to be cleared before they could go through.
Kent, the BNSF spokeswoman, said engineers would work through the night to remove the derailed cars from the main line. The damaged cars were expected to be removed and the tracks repaired by this afternoon.
She said the speed of the train at the time of the incident has not been established and the cause is under investigation. She added that the tracks are inspected daily.