Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Mudslides continue to plague rail traffic north of Seattle

Zargoman photo
/
Flickr

Mudslides continue to shut down train tracks, and halt passenger rail traffic north of Seattle.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokesman Gus Melonas says tracks between Seattle and Everett have been shut down for passenger trains 95 percent of the time since Thanksgiving. 

He says there have been 74 slides in that period. The latest was at south Everett Wednesday morning. Another slide Tuesday night covered tracks in British Columbia south of Vancouver.

Crews can usually clear the tracks quickly to allow freight train traffic to resume, but Amtrak and Sound Transit Sounder trains must observe a 48-hour moratorium for safety.

The earliest that Amtrak and Sounder trains could roll north from Seattle would be 8 a.m. Friday. Alternate bus service is in place for the Northlink service andfor Amtrak

You can see what a dramatic mudslide along the line looks like in this video, posted on YouTube this past December. (The drama's at about 1 minute 5 seconds in.)

http://youtu.be/mVXZbgplHgg

And here's BNSF Spokesman, Gus Melonas, explaining that the disruptions along the line are just the reality of the geography in the area, until they can get more funding to improve conditions near the tracks.

GM-way-o-life-here-for-WEB.mp3

Bellamy Pailthorp covers the environment for KNKX with an emphasis on climate justice, human health and food sovereignty. She enjoys reporting about how we will power our future while maintaining healthy cultures and livable cities. Story tips can be sent to bpailthorp@knkx.org.
The Associated Press (“AP”) is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from the AP. Founded in 1846, the AP today is one of the largest and most trusted sources of independent newsgathering. The AP considers itself to be the backbone of the world’s information system, serving thousands of daily newspaper, radio, television, and online customers with coverage in text, photos, graphics, audio and video.