(The following article by Mike Goodwin was posted on the Albany Times Union website on October 14.)
AMSTERDAM, N.Y. — Freight and passenger rail service resumed Thursday as the investigation continued into what caused an eastbound CSX freight train to derail the day before, officials said.
One of the mangled tracks along the Mohawk River was reopened Wednesday night after CSX crews finished removing the 18 derailed cars, CSX spokeswoman Meg Scheu said. Work crews finished repairing the sections Thursday morning along the tracks that connect Albany to Syracuse.
“We’re catching back up now,” Scheu said of CSX rail traffic. Amtrak was also resuming its passenger rail service.
She said investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the accident, which occurred at 8:20 a.m. Wednesday just east of the Route 30 bridge that connects Amsterdam to Interstate 90.
The derailment occurred at a switch in the tracks, though CSX officials said they are unsure if a problem with the mechanism, which transfers trains from one track to another, was to blame. Authorities are looking into driver error, track flaws and speed as potential factors.
The 84-car train was bound for the Selkirk rail yard. Neither of the train’s two crew members nor any bystanders were hurt. Ten of the cars were empty and the others contained no harmful chemicals, officials said.