(The following story by Rob Tucker appeared on The News Tribune website on October 20.)
SEATTLE — The main railroad line linking Seattle, Tacoma and Portland will be open again today after crews cleared wreckage, laid new tracks and picked up spillage from a 13-car derailment in Steilacoom.
Both of the main sets of tracks were open by 9:15 p.m. Friday, and freight trains were running through again, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for the BNSF railroad.
The north-south mainline is used by BNSF and Union Pacific freight trains, as well as Amtrak passenger trains, and carries at least 50 trains per day.
Amtrak had to stop service over the line Thursday because of the derailment. Normal service will resume today. Some Amtrak passengers coming from Los Angeles on Thursday were being bused from Eugene, Ore., to Seattle. Two scheduled Amtrak trains were canceled Thursday.
BNSF and Union Pacific had staged trains to get ready for the line reopening, Melonas said.
The derailment occurred about 3 a.m. Thursday when 13 cars from a 95-car BNSF freight train with four locomotives jumped the tracks at a concrete block crossing in Steilacoom on Union Avenue. The road leads to the Pierce County ferry terminal and the McNeil Island Corrections Center boat dock.
No one was hurt. The damaged tracks temporarily stopped ferry service for Anderson and Ketron island residents and boat service for the state’s McNeil Island Corrections Center and the Special Commitment Center for sex offenders.
Within six hours of the wreck, crews had fixed the tracks at the ferry and boat docks so service could resume.
Within 24 hours, BNSF crews had removed the 13 cars and were laying new track and finishing cleanup of spilled wheat and soybeans from the derailed cars, Melonas said.
Cause of the derailment remains under investigation. Melonas said there was no environmental damage from the wreck.
One of the derailed cars contained ethylene glycol, a component of antifreeze that is considered a hazardous substance, but it remained upright and did not leak or pose any threat to the environment, he said.
Emergency vessels in Puget Sound placed a containment boom around the area where the derailment occurred. The mainline tracks run along Puget Sound in the area of the derailment.
BNSF rerouted 18 BNSF freight trains onto other tracks in Washington State on Thursday and Friday.
It will take about a week for crews to haul away the wreckage and debris, Melonas said.