Derailment Forces Busing of Passengers
NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. — A freight train derailment blocked a Santa Fe Railway transcontinental line and forced Amtrak to bus hundreds of passengers across the Mojave Desert on Thursday, authorities said.
The freight’s two crewmen were not injured in the 8:30 p.m. Wednesday derailment of 19 flatcars, said railroad spokesman Mike Martin in Illinois.
Some parcels containing hazardous materials were in trailers aboard the derailed cars but no spills were reported, he said.
Amtrak stopped two westbound runs of its Chicago-to-Los Angeles Southwest Chief at Needles, on the Arizona border, and bused passengers west.
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