Rail route reopens after train collision

COLUMBIA FALLS, Mont. – Crews on Friday reopened a main east-west rail route across Montana after clearing derailed cars and other debris from a collision of two freight trains.

Traffic resumed late in the afternoon, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. BNSF owns the tracks.

BNSF is still investigating why the two trains collided head-on Thursday morning east of Columbia Falls in Badrock Canyon.

Melonas said seven locomotives were put back on the tracks, along with two of the five derailed cars. “The other three are too difficult to get to or are too damaged,” he said. “They’ll be removed from the site at a later date.”

Melonas said the trains collided at a combined speed of about 10 mph.

The four crew members were not seriously injured, although one complained of minor back pain, he said.

The derailed freight cars were carrying bird seed, feed and grain from Minneapolis to Pasco.

The collision forced Amtrak to bus nearly 200 passengers about 250 miles between Whitefish and Havre, Mont.

The track normally carries an average of 45 trains a day.