(The Associated Press circulated the following story on July 25.)
WHITEFISH, Mont. — Burlington Northern-Santa Fe’s northern mainline route across Montana reopened Thursday after crews replaced track torn up in a derailment.
“Freight traffic is on the move. Amtrak will resume normal traffic patterns tonight,” railroad spokesman Gus Melonas said Thursday morning. “We still have to remove debris from the area, which will take a few weeks.”
The Amtrak Empire Builder runs on the BNSF line on its route between Chicago and Seattle. Amtrak was busing passengers between Spokane, Wash., and Whitefish to avoid the derailment, while BNSF detoured some train traffic by way of Montana Rail Link’s southern route.
The railroad still doesn’t know the cause of Tuesday’s derailment, Melonas said.
A BNSF freight train derailed 85 miles west of Whitefish along the Kootenai River Tuesday evening. No one was injured and no hazardous materials were involved in the 6:55 p.m. derailment.
Seven multiple-trailer units and four single trailer cars derailed.
The train had four locomotives and 74 cars and was en route from Chicago to Tacoma, Wash.
Up to 35 trains in a 24-hour period use the northern mainline route across Montana.