(The following story by Ed Kemmick appeared on The Billings Gazette website on August 4, 2009.)
BILLINGS, Mont. — About 90 Montana Rail Link employees in the Laurel-Billings area are on emergency furlough because of the slowdown in train traffic caused by a tunnel collapse near Helena.
MRL spokeswoman Lynda Frost said about 70 workers in the operating department and 22 employees in the mechanical department have been placed on furlough pending the reopening of the Mullan Tunnel northwest of Helena. The furloughs affected about 40 percent of the operating staff and 20 percent of the mechanical staff.
“Those employees will be called back as soon as we resume traffic,” she said.
The tunnel is expected to be open again by Sunday, but Frost said this morning that the next 24 hours would be critical in determining whether that date is still likely.
The freight yard in Laurel is the biggest in the MRL system, which is a regional railroad that stretches between Billings and Spokane, Wash. MRL is based in Missoula and employs about 1,000 people.
The 3,896-foot-long Mullan Tunnel, which was built in the early 1880s under the Continental Divide, was in the midst of a renovation project to make it wider and taller when a portion of it collapsed on July 20. Just before it was scheduled to reopen last Sunday, a 20-foot ceiling section collapsed.
MRL connects with the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway in Laurel, Garrison and Spokane, and with the Union Pacific Railroad at Sandpoint, Idaho, where the lines that run through southern and northern Montana come together.
The Mullan Tunnel sits between Helena and Missoula, and its closure has shut down through traffic on the southern Montana line. Twelve to 15 trains a day usually go through the tunnel, Frost said.
During the closure, BNSF trains have been rerouted to the Hi-Line through Great Falls. Though the trains are still running, not as many workers are needed because the trains are on BNSF-owned track once they leave the MRL system.
Frost said maintenance workers are using the slowdown to catch up on bridge and track repairs all along the MRL line.