(The following report appeared on the Rocky Mountain News website on December 12.)
LITTLETON, Colo. — Light rail service to Littleton will remain suspended for a third day Thursday as a Union Pacific repair crew continues to fix tracks damaged in a coal train derailment Tuesday morning.
RTD can’t begin to repair the damaged electric power supply lines until it gets onto the repaired tracks. It may get access today. Two poles that hold the high-voltage lines to power the RTD trains were knocked out in the accident, which also derailed and damaged a two-car light rail train.
The transit agency said it won’t estimate when service will be restored. For the time being, it is running high-frequency bus service to the Oxford Station in Sheridan from the closed light rail park-n-Rides at Littleton Downtown and Littleton Mineral.
Twenty-five cars of a 106-car coal train left the track at 6:15 Tuesday morning. An RTD train hit either the wrecked cars or the coal or both. There were no injuries.