(The following article by Louis Galvan was posted on the Fresno Bee website on June 21.)
FRESNO, Calif. — Trains began rumbling through the heart of Fresno again Wednesday, a day after a four-car derailment shut down the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks through the central San Joaquin Valley, disrupting freight services and Amtrak passenger trips.
Two tank cars loaded with flammable gas were involved in the derailment near Blackstone and McKinley avenues, but a railroad spokeswoman said Wednesday that both remained intact and no leaks were discovered.
The cause of the derailment has not been determined, said Lena Kent, a BNSF spokeswoman in San Bernardino. The railroad is investigating.
The 4,877-foot-long train had four locomotives and 79 cars — 65 carrying loads and 14 that were empty, Kent said. The two tank cars that derailed each carried 30,000 gallons of liquefied petroleum gas, she said.
One of the tank cars had minor damage, and the other was not damaged, said Edward Phillips, an environmental operations manager with BNSF out of San Bernardino who was dispatched to the accident scene Tuesday night.
An empty car and a car loaded with potash, a material used in making glass, also derailed, Kent said.
The train was traveling at 10 mph, she said. It had been en route from Barstow to Stockton.
The engineer had reported experiencing difficulty driving the train at Divisadero Street near Community Regional Medical Center before the engines shuddered to a stop just south of McKinley, a Fresno Fire Department spokesman said Tuesday. The cars that derailed were on the track north of McKinley.
The accident shows why it would be a good idea to move the BNSF tracks three-quarters of a mile west to the Union Pacific corridor, where fewer people would be affected by a derailment, said Tom Bailey, president of Fresno Area Residents for Consolidation. The nonprofit organization was formed seven years ago to advocate for such a move.
“Fresno really dodged the bullet,” Bailey said Wednesday. “We were lucky yesterday.”
Concerns about a possible leak had prompted authorities Tuesday to close streets and shut down nearby businesses. Late classes at Fresno City College were canceled. The campus was open Wednesday.
The derailment shut down freight services from Bakersfield to Fresno until the line was reopened shortly after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Amtrak trains, which use the BNSF line, were shut down from Merced to Bakersfield until the tracks reopened, said Vernae Graham, a spokeswoman for Amtrak in Oakland. Passengers were transported by bus between Bakersfield and Merced during the closure, she said.
The two tank cars and the empty car will remain at the side of the tracks while the company makes arrangements to remove them, probably in a couple of days, Kent said.
Workers labored through the night Tuesday to replace about 1,000 feet of damaged tracks from the Blackstone railroad crossing to the McKinley crossing, Phillips said.
The workers also had to make sure all safety equipment — such as crossing arms and flashing lights — was working, he said.
Gil Hernandez, a Fresno police spokesman, said McKinley between Blackstone and Van Ness might remain closed until Friday because of continuing repair work.