Richmond coal-train derailment affects Amtrak service

CSX workers survey the site where twelve coal carrying cars derailed overnight. The accident occurred just north of downtown, east of Hospital Street, behind the Oliver Hill Courts building. This view is from the Martin Luther King Memorial Bridge. The cars were being cleared by Crane Masters aalong the intersections of Seventh and Hospital streets and Fifth and Hospital streets.

By: | Times-Dispatch
Published: December 01, 2009

A portion of a train carrying coal derailed just north of downtown Richmond overnight. No injuries were reported, but passenger-rail service between the capital and Newport News was affected.

Richmond fire Lt. Shawn L. Jones said authorities were trying to determine what caused the derailment on CSX tracks at 3:01 a.m. just east of Hospital Street, near Seventh Street. Twelve of the train's 100 cars lost their load, overturned and were heavily damaged, and two other cars were partially off the track, Jones said.

CSX crews as well as Crane Masters, a private contractor, worked through the pre-dawn hours to clear the intersections of Seventh and Hospital streets and Fifth and Hospital streets.

While vehicle access was restored to nearby intersections in a matter of hours, the derailment blocked tracks used by Amtrak for its passenger service between Richmond's Main Street Station and Newport News.

"Our plan today is to bus between Richmond and Newport News," Amtrak spokeswoman Carina Romero said shortly before daybreak. "We will have service, but it will be by bus."

Later in the morning, Romero said Amtrak would be unable to access the tracks for the rest of the day, requiring the rail line to use buses for its two morning and two afternoon passenger-line runs between Richmond and Newport News.

Once CSX and Crane Masters cleared the intersections blocked by the derailment, they turned their attention to getting the cars back on the tracks and cleaning up the spilled coal -- a process that likely would take up much of the day.

Jones said a representative of the National Transportation Safety Board was on the scene of the derailment.