(The following article by Gary Gerhardt was posted on the Rocky Mountain News website on January 24.)
DENVER — Union Pacific crews completed repairs Monday of the track closed by the derailment of a coal train in the Rollinsville tunnel Saturday, which stranded the Winter Park Ski Train.
Mark Davis, Union Pacific spokesman, said the line reopened at 3 p.m. Monday.
Ski Train president Jim Bain said most of the 800 skiers who rode the train Saturday found a way to get home on their own.
“Mostly it was calling in favors to have someone come up and get them,” he said.
“There were about 250 people stranded with no way home, so we used charter buses and by 8:30 p.m. Saturday, everyone who wanted to leave was on their way back to Denver,” he said.
He said about 20 people stayed over until Sunday and caught a bus back to Denver.
The Ski Train reimbursed all of the passengers, and because the train couldn’t run Sunday either, Bain estimated it cost his company $60,000 in total.
“It could have been worse,” he said. “Because the Broncos were playing Sunday, we only had about half as many passengers scheduled to ride.”
The Ski Train carries skiers on Saturdays and Sundays to Winter Park and returns the same day.