Several cars from an 85-car Canadian Pacific Railway freight train dangle from a trestle over the North Fork of the Crow River.

8 June 2011

Train Traffic Will Increase Through Paynesville as Tracks Open After Derailment

Paynesville Minnesota USA - The railroad tracks on which eight cars derailed in Paynesville Monday are expected to reopen today and the tracks will be busier than usual, a Canadian Pacific Railway spokesman said.
 
Canadian Pacific said it has about one or two days' worth of deliveries to make up after the derailment and the tracks that run from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Chicago while cutting through Central Minnesota and Minneapolis-St. Paul could see as many as 20 additional trains, said Mike Lovecchio, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific Railway.
 
The tracks normally see between 10 and 20 trains a day. It could be double that as Canadian Pacific tries to catch up. The additional activity is expected to last until at least Thursday afternoon and possibly Friday.
 
"In the interest of our customers, we need to get that caught up quickly. Customers are counting on those shipments," Lovecchio said.
 
The additional trains will be noticed throughout the line and not just in the Paynesville area. Lovecchio encouraged people who travel near the line to use extra caution.
 
The cars derailed about 2:51 p.m. Monday on a trestle near the American Milk Producers Inc. plant in Paynesville. The derailed cars were part of an 85-car train headed from St. Paul to Calgary, Alberta. Original information from the railway suggested the train was headed east. It was going west, Lovecchio said. No one was injured and no hazardous materials were released.
 
Workers repaired the tracks Tuesday and this morning all the cars have been removed from the track's right-of-way, a 16-foot area measured from the center of the tracks.
 
Several cars that left the tracks remained in the area this morning, Lovecchio said. Those will be removed.
 
The investigation into what caused the cars to leave the tracks is ongoing and is expected to take some time, he said.
 
"We are not going to have a conclusive cause in the short term," Lovecchio said.