Derailment at Culbertson, MT, 7/16/15

[Palmetto]

IIRC, the area between Culbertson and Williston has just been double-tracked, and the tracks looked pristine when I was there a couple of weeks ago. So I would guess train, rather than track, issues.

No, but there are plans to install DT as far as Snowden, MT next year, which is east of the Culbertson area. There is an 8437-foot siding at Culbertson.

Double track construction is still taking place east of Epping, ND. which will connect with a stretch of double track already in place west through Williston. Next year's work will entail doubling between Williston and Snowden.

 

[montana mike]

I see #7 lost almost exactly 6 hours as it slowly made its way thru ND and MT today. Hopefully timekeeping for the EB's will improve by Monday.

 

[CHamilton]

Montana highway restrictions lifted; train wreck site clear

 

[montana mike]

Interesting note, Statoil (the owner of the crude in the rail cars), confirmed that the oil on the derailed train was indeed "treated" to reduce the volatile gases, so that may have helped prevent any fire.

 

[dlagrua]

The number of oil trains leaving the Bakken region per week is in the 100's. The equates to 1000's of oil tankers on the tracks. Oil spills are an ecological disaster so it will soon come to deciding which is less damaging to the environment, a pipeline or rail transport. One thing certain is that the oil boom will continue for many years to come.

After our experience on the EB last year ( 6 hours late into SEA and 12 hours late into CHI ) we are reluctant to take the train anymore. Amtrak is at the mercy of BNSF and CN and it looks as though things will not change anytime soon. Its a detriment to Amtrak that such a nice route has been so ill effected by the oil boom. If it keeps going like this, only the the oil workers and the people that travel from remote areas (that must take the train) will be on it, I tell you, its a dam shame..

 

[montana mike]

The oil boom has most definitely effected the traffic on the Hi-Line, BUT the other freight numbers are up as well, especially intermodal and these also contributed to the issues. BNSF is trying to catch up after several years of "benign neglect" under the thumb of Berkshire Hathaway. Little capital funds were expended on most of BNSF's routes during BH's first several years of ownership and this took a massive toll on the railroad's ability to react to the inevitable traffic increases. The Hi-Line was hit especially hard due to the energy boom to be sure. We saw this happening at "ground level" here in MT and it was painful to see a once very well run railroad being overseen by a holding company whose main purpose was to harvest profits for other acquisitions.

BH and BNSF were forced into action when things got so bad for their customers that quite a few began using other modes of transportation (even when it cost more) to just get their goods to markets on time. It was an amazing sight to see.

 

[Bierboy]

...After our experience on the EB last year ( 6 hours late into SEA and 12 hours late into CHI ) we are reluctant to take the train anymore....

Are you talking about rail travel in general? Or just the EB? Seems to me most of these issues are on the EB route because of the oil transport loads on those routes. I would think twice before ever taking the EB again, but I wouldn't hesitate taking the CZ or SWC.....

 

[montana mike]

Each route has its challenges from time to time, but you are right, the Hi-Line and Empire Builders are really struggling. Sorry to see this. This train was once Amtrak's best performer as far as timekeeping. I took it for years and arrived at both outgoing and returning destinations on time well over 90% of the time and often arrived in Chicago 10-15 minutes early. The BEST I have done on this train in the past two years on over 20 trips has been about 2 hours late into CHI, with a couple of 12 hour delays and many in the 6+ hour range. Tough to do travel planning with this lack of timekeeping.

 

[montana mike]

I had a brief, but thoughtful discussion with several of my local BNSF folks today. As we can see today's EB's are all running between 2-4 hours late, and yesterday's were even later, as has been the case almost every day now this entire summer. One of my BNSF people raised the question: Why does Amtrak keep the old schedule, when they know the current situation (which is forecasted to continue for at least another year) will preclude them from coming even close to that schedule most of the time? He went on to say BNSF laid out the entire Summer and Fall construction plan, along with freight projections (which were slightly more conservative than what is actually happening) and they told Amtrak right up front that given all of the operating parameters an average 3+ hour delay over the entire route was a foregone conclusion. Since #8's are averaging a little over 4 hours late into CHI over the past 6 weeks or so I too am scratching my head as to why Amtrak just doesn't bite the bullet and take into account reality. I have taken several EB's during this time and I can say, from my observations, BNSF did indeed try to move our train along as best as they could, but the combination of very heavy freight traffic and numerous small and a couple major work areas just mitigated those efforts to be able to stay on time. My best arrival time so far this year in CHI has been 150 minutes late, the worst was 240 minutes late. Perhaps it is because they no longer can muster that extra train set in SEA and PDX?

Things should get better when the major work is done in a little over a year. But in the mean time I guess we will just have to live with missed connections and long delays.