(The following article by Bill Miller was posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on January 11.)
DALLAS — Commuter rail service out of Union Station in Dallas was set to resume for afternoon rush hour after a derailed freight train disrupted rail traffic near the downtown area.
The Trinity Railway Express, which connects Fort Worth to Dallas by rail, was scheduled to resume full service at 3:04 p.m., said Morgan Lyons, spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, which oversees TRE activity in Dallas.
The blockage to Union Station began at 3:30 a.m. when a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train traveling on track owned by Union Pacific went off the rails near Dealey Plaza.
A total of 114 cars filled with grain sorghum were on the train, which was destined for Teague, said Joe Faust, BNSF spokesman. Four cars and two locomotives derailed.
The railroad summoned Denton-based Hulcher Services, which specializes in derailment responses, to get the train back on track.
BNSF Spokesman Joe Faust said at 2:50 p.m. that the line was expected to reopen “any moment now.”
Earlier, however, the derailment prevented commuters on the TRE from stopping at Union Station.
The passengers, many of them from Tarrant County, experienced delays of 10 to 15 minutes, Lyons said.
Alternatively, eastbound commuters destined for Union Station had to disembark about three miles away at the Medical/Market Center Station, behind Parkland Memorial Hospital.
From there, they boarded one of eight DART buses that took them to Union Station, Lyons said. Buses also carried passengers from Union Station to the Medical/Market Center.
He said the “bus bridges” kept working until the derailment was cleared.
The cause of the derailment was still being investigated Thursday afternoon, Faust said.