(The Associated Press circulated the following story by Martin Griffith on December 28.)
RENO, Nev. — A freight train derailment in Nevada will not disrupt rail service on one of the country’s main east-west lines as initially feared, Union Pacific officials said Sunday.
Since the derailment Saturday in the remote high desert about 260 miles east of Reno, the railroad has determined a parallel line can be used to get all trains through the area, Union Pacific spokeswoman Zoe Richmond said.
Trains hauling coal, chemicals, aggregates, lumber and consumer goods would have been forced to make long, expensive detours to the north or south without the parallel line, she said.
“There will be no major disruptions in rail service as previously thought,” Richmond said. “At this point, we don’t have any delays and we’re not anticipating to have any delays.”
Amtrak uses the same line, and its California Zephyr service was not affected by the derailment, a spokeswoman said.
Fifteen of the train’s 99 cars were involved in the derailment along the Humboldt River about 10 miles west of Carlin, Richmond said, and all the cars were carrying corn.
No one was injured.
On Sunday, five cars were still in the river and another car was in a tunnel. The train was passing through the 875-foot tunnel when the derailment occurred.
A nearby 102-year-old bridge spanning the river collapsed a couple of hours after the derailment, Richmond said, and railroad officials are still unsure how long it’ll take to restore it.
“It’s going to take some maneuvering to get trains through on that one line, but we’ll be OK,” Richmond said. “But still a lot of hard work needs to be done.”
The cause of the derailment is under investigation by the rail company.
Derailments usually result from driver error or issues concerning tracks or cars.
“We’ll be looking at all those,” Richmond said. “We should be knowing about the cause sometime soon.”