(The following story by Lisa Schwarz appeared on the St. Cloud Times website on April 17, 2009.)
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — St. Cloud won’t see Amtrak trains until at least next week because of high water in North Dakota.
Amtrak’s main and alternate routes along BNSF Railway tracks in eastern North Dakota have been off-limits since Tuesday. Washouts are being reported east of Minot, N.D., along the traditional route, BNSF Railway spokesman Steve Forsberg said Thursday. A bridge is also out on that line.
Water has risen over the rails on the alternate route near New Rockford, N.D., Forsberg said. While freight trains are still moving on that line under a 10 mph speed limit, it cannot be used for passenger traffic.
Forsberg said the railroad is able to do some repair work, but mostly it’s a matter of weather and time. “It’s just a continuation of dealing with all of the flooding issues,” he said.
BNSF Railway is working to move freight along the waterlogged alternate line, but has alerted customers to expect delays of 24 to 36 hours.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said he doesn’t expect Empire Builder service to resume between St. Paul and Minot until at least Sunday.
The service outage puts a stop to twice-daily passenger rail service in St. Cloud. Amtrak’s Chicago-Seattle/Portland Empire Builder service is scheduled to stop here at 12:40 a.m. on its westbound trips and 5:14 a.m. on the eastbound leg.
More than 14,000 passengers boarded or left Amtrak trains at the St. Cloud station last year.
While passengers headed to points west of the Twin Cities have not been boarded in Chicago since Tuesday, eastbound passengers were bused from Minot on Tuesday night to continue their journeys.
They were the last to make the trip this week.
“We have examined running charter buses (between St. Paul and Minot), but local road conditions due to flooding prevent us from running buses,” Magliari said Thursday. “And it would be a long overnight trip on a bus.”
Amtrak service to Staples and Detroit Lakes and to Fargo, Devils Lake and Rugby, N.D., is also on hiatus.
Passengers with Empire Builder tickets can contact Amtrak at 800-USA-RAIL to change their reservations or request a refund, he said.