(The following story by Fred Barbash appeared on the Washington Post website on December 18.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A CSX freight train derailed this morning south of Alexandria, disrupting Virginia Railway Express and Amtrak service in the area and causing an 80-minute shutdown of parts of Metrorail’s Blue Line.
VRE officials said that Fredericksburg line trains are being offloaded at the Franconia/Springfield station while Manassas line passengers are being offloaded near the Van Dorn Street Metro Station.
Amtrak Spokesman Cliff Black said that with the exception of the autotrain from Florida, all traffic has been suspended between Washington and southbound points including Florida, Richmond, Atlanta and New Orleans. He said some trains will probably be cancelled.
Amtrak shares tracks with CSX in the area, he said.
Metrorail service was suspended for about 80 minutes between the King Street and Franconia/Springfield stations but as of 7.20 service was restored.
The derailment of about 14 cars of a 96-car train, happened just before 6 a.m. near Business Center Drive and Quaker Lane.
Bob Sullivan, a CSX spokesman, said the train was headed from Richmond to Philadelphia.
The cause has not been determined.
Hazardous materials crews were on the scene but no dangerous materials had been discovered. Sullivan said that tanker cars on the train contained residues and that nothing was leaking.
He said CSX would work as quickly as possible to clear the tracks.
Alexandria police say no roads in the are have been affected by the derailment.