(The following story by Katherine Long appeared on the Seattle Times website on March 26, 2010.)
SEATTLE, Wash. — Sounder trains to Everett have been canceled for the Thursday evening and Friday commute, and Amtrak passengers going to and from Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., will have to take a bus instead, because of a mudslide across the northbound tracks near Mukilteo.
Mud, rocks and a large tree slid around 10:30 a.m. Thursday and covered one of the two sets of tracks a mile north of Mukilteo, said Burlington Northern spokesman Gus Melonas.
As required by federal law, Burlington Northern, which owns the tracks, puts a 48-hour moratorium on passenger train traffic after a slide to make sure the slope has stabilized, so Amtrak trains won’t be able to use the tracks until 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the earliest, Melonas said.
Amtrak instead will bus passengers between Seattle and Vancouver, an Amtrak spokeswoman said. Amtrak passengers should show up at their train stations as scheduled, and they’ll be directed onto a bus, rather than the train.
Sounder commuter trains, which run on weekdays, will be able to make stops in Mukilteo and Edmonds on Friday, but not Everett, the agency said. Everett riders can take ST Express Route 510, which runs between Fourth Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Seattle and the Everett Sounder station.
It’s the second slide in two weeks along the stretch of tracks north of Seattle. The 2-foot-deep slide was detected by a slide fence, which sent a signal to train engineers that there was debris on the track ahead, Melonas said.
The debris was cleared by crews on Thursday, and freight trains are using the tracks; only passenger trains are affected by the slide, he said.