Commuters down Old Katy Road near the 610 Loop were turned away early Thursday morning after a train derailed and fell off the bridge onto the pavement below. Officials say no one was injured in the accident.
Around 8:30 a.m., a westbound Kansas City Southern train traveling between Beaumont and Kendleton derailed at the Eureka Junction in West Houston.
The 84-car train had two locomotives.
Kansas City Southern operates a two-man crew, a conductor and an engineer, and neither was injured in the accident according to Union Pacific spokesperson Jeff DeGraff.
Nine cars, including the locomotive, came off the rails and two cars came off the overpass; one landing on Old Katy Road and the other coming to rest on the embankment.
According to DeGraff, the derailed car that landed on the street was transporting plastic pellets and the car on the embankment was carrying soy beans.
DeGraff confirmed that there were no hazardous materials involved in the incident.
Crews from Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern are on the scene attempting to upright and re-rail the cars and conduct repairs to the track according to DeGraff. Crews with R.J. Corman Railroad Group are leading the rerailing efforts.
“There was significant damage and it will take some time to cut and replace those rails,” he said. “Union Pacific will be handling the cleanup and rerail since it’s their track.”
The dmaged track remains closed, but the track on the north sideof the bridge was not damaged. DeGraff said it is being used to allow trains to bring supplies to the crews. Old Katy road is closed in both directions while repairs are being done.
DeGraff said vacuum trucks are being used to offload the products, but he was unsure how long the process will take, but he is hopeful that the roadway will be cleared by Thursday evening.
“We’re beginning a lengthy process to upright the cars and clear the area,” he said. “It will take several hours to get the product offloaded from the cars.”
The cause of the train’s derailment is currently under investigation.
“ I’m unsure on the facts on how the derailment occurred and the actions of the crew,” he said. “That investigation has already started, but it will take some time.
“We’re in the process of downloading that information from the data recorders that were on both locomotives,” he said. “There was one locomotive at the head of the train and one in the middle of the train to give it distributed power. We’ve pulled the data recorders from both locomotives that will help give us an idea of how the train was functioning and what was happening when the event occurred.”
DeGraff added that investigators will also analyze video from the locomotives and get the account of the accident from the engineer and conductor on board the train.
“Once the trains have been pulled out, we’ll start doing measurements and inspections and scans of the track and the wheels of the cars involved. All of that gets put together to give us the full picture,” he said.
About four hours after the accident, crews had removed the cars that were upright on the track and a locomotive was able to pull them away.
“We’re going to bring in a locomotive from the east side to attach to the back end of the train and we will pull those cars east to our Pierce yard,” he said.
DeGraff said there is no history of problems at this junction to his knowledge.
“I’d have to go back and look through our logs to see if there have been any specific issues,” he said.
DeGraff says they’re doing their best to make the roadways passable as soon as possible, but they will not be able to assess how much damage was done to the pavement until the cars are removed.
“Certainly our focus is on getting this roadway reopened so we can have a minimal impact on the public,” he said.
DeGraff said because no one was injured in the accident, investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were not called to the scene. He says Union Pacific and Kansas City Southern will work together on the investigation.
“Certainly we are very fortunate that there were no injuries at all sustained by the crew or any of the passing motorists, which is why the investigation into why this happened is very important, so we can make sure to avoid future incidents like this,” he said.
DeGraff said Union Pacific doesn’t wait for red flags such as this to examine the infrastructure of the company.
“We invest a considerable amount of private capital into our infrastructure, such as these tracks and these bridges,” he said. “In Texas alone we’ve spent $300 million over the last 10 years to upgrade our tracks. We take this very seriously because we want to avoid incidents like this. We’ll certainly be looking into this incident and see if there’s additional work that needs to be done. Our derailments have gone down considerably the last 10 years.”
DeGraff said officials have not yet estimated how much the clean up operation will cost.
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