E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS7 freight train cars are pushed off the tracks near Everett, Wash. NBCNews.com's Al Stirrett reports.
Sure it's scenic, but taking the train between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., can be a trying time during the Pacific Northwest's extended rainy season. Already since Thanksgiving, more than 40 landslides have interrupted rail service and passenger service has been completely shut down since Dec. 17.
"It's one of the longest shutdowns in the Pacific Northwest that I've seen," Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF, the railway company that owns the line, told NBC News.
Melonas said it's also the fifth "most problematic" season for landslides in his 20 years in the area, with BNSF having to clean up after each one.
Over the summer, BNSF spent millions to shore up the 150 miles of terrain, enhancing slide sensors and culverts, contouring cliff walls, improving tracks, and stabilizing bridges and a marine wall.
But "downpour after downpour" has still taken a toll in recent weeks, Melonas said. The worst damage from these thin "skin slides" was when a section of cliff slid into a moving cargo train, taking out seven railcars.
And while cargo rail can get up and running after short interruptions, it can take several days for passenger service to get the green light due to safety regulations.
The latest slide was Thursday and BNSF is still evaluating when passenger service will resume -- the earliest would be Monday, Melonas said, and that's assuming no new slides over the weekend.
Amtrak has long had a backup plan -- putting passengers on buses. And that's been the routine this season as well for thousands of travelers.
"It's Washington," Amtrak passenger Bruce Lipke told NBC affiliate KING5.com. "You have enough rain and anything slides."
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Westboro church's threat to picket Newtown sparks call for action
- The year in quotes quiz: Test your knowledge!
- 3 officers shot at New Jersey police station
- Video: TODAY's most newsworthy stories of 2012
- Desert Storm commander Norman Schwarzkopf dies at 78
- Guns flood into police buyback programs, though critics have doubts
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Amtrak sucks anyways.
yupp...it's like...a train to no where...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UfMyBsaV8
And gravity always wins!
sudden stops rule...
I enjoyed rideing AMTRAK every week-end from San Diego to LA and back to San Diego
Rain? Seattle area? Must be climate change. Call the eniroMENTALists to the scene. There must be something to be regulated to stop this.
actually seattle gets much less rain than you think. Less per year than cities like dallas and miami. Seattle is usually a drizzle and other cities get downpours.
You need to be regulated.
A point of correction to Mr Melonas' comments. It is not a safety "REGULATION" that is stopping the passenger trains, but a BNSF internal POLICY. This has not only effected AMTRAK service but our SOUNDER commuter service as well. BNSF doesn not use this 48 hour moratorium anywhere else in its system. It is used here purely for political purposes... to get the local voters to approve ballot measures to provide BNSF with greater funds for running the commuter trains. BNSF does not want these trains on this particular set of tracks and has done everything in its power the last 10 years to disuade the local commuters fro using the SOUNDER service or to get voters to pony up th emillions necessary to "upgrade" their tracks.
Its funny, the Great Northern Railway, the orriginal builder of these tracks ran many more trains that BNSF does today and many many more passenger trains. They didnt just cancel service when it rained. They found ways to fix the situation & get the trains moving again.
As a Seattleite and avid passenger rail advocate, I would urge Mr Melonas to be accurate in his statements and his bosses @ BNSF to acknowledge their real agenda.
I grew up on Whidbey...1955. Not only was GNR far better than BNR but Puget Power was much better than PSE (2 hr outages were unacceptable back then-now it is days). Remember Dan Evans...the last good Governor we had? Things were much better then. Bad politics can sure ruin a place. But even Dan could not stop the rain, though some thought he could. I tell people I can not see the rain because of the trees.
EMDF9A
Maybe a letter campaign to Warren Buffett would be more effective to improve BNSF's attitude.
Is this really a surprise? With the spending cuts Repugnicans are pushing, our national infrastructure is decaying even as China forges ahead with its own modernization. Instead of paying for maintenance and expansion of our railways, roads and bridges, government funds are bailing out Wall Street banksters and greedy CEOs, just as Repugnicans would have it.
The weekday commuter train suffering from the mudslide problem has an even bigger problem.
If you read Washington State law RCW 81.104.120 and also know the ridership and cost numbers for the Sound Transit Sounder commuter rail between Seattle and Everett, you may conclude, like I did, that this train is illegal. There is a standard for its cost per passenger mile which is being violated.
The complete shutdown of this train since December 17 for "slope instability" is making its ridership numbers worse, and thus making it even more illegal.
I testified on this point to the Sound Transit Board of Directors on December 20 during the shutdown:
The express buses covering the same route were reported by the Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel to be more used and constantly overcrowded even when this train is running, so the obvious solution is to cancel the train and reallocate the money within the same agency to the buses, which don't suffer blockages from "slope instability."