PORT COSTA, Calif. — No injuries were reported after an Amtrak Capitol Corridor train struck a downed tree and derailed this afternoon, disrupting traffic on the San Jose-Auburn, Calif., route.
The derailment was reported 3:25 p.m. PDT about a half-mile east of Port Costa, according to the Crockett-Carquinez Fire Department. Fifty-five people were on board; the fire department reported on Twitter it cleared the scene in about an hour.
The Capitol Corridor Twitter feed reports some trains are currently originating and terminating in Martinez, about a mile east of the derailment scene, with Bay Area Rapid Transit providing assistance for passengers between Martinez, San Francisco, and San Jose. At least one other train has terminated in Richmond.
KRON Radio reports that Amtrak said in a statement that the train involved was No. 534, a 2:12 p.m. departure from Oakland to Sacramento, and that the train “remained upright with all systems operating.”
Passenger Matthew Patton, who was on the derailed train, sent Trains News Wire a link a short video showing the derailed cab car, taken as passengers passed the derailment site after being transferred to another train. It is available here.
— Updated March 22 at 7:15 a.m. with information on train involved; updated at 8:30 a.m. with link to video.
The railroads are everybody’s favorite whipping boy right now whether it is a freight railroad, Amtrak or mass transit. The world is dark and people today thrive and revel in misfortune and disaster and of course it feeds the media’s drive for headlines and ratings. You never hear of or very little of the good things that are happening in the rail industry but only gloom and doom and the noisy prophets and hucksters and gloom merchants feed on the ignorance of the general public and seem to have a dark nature Facts and intelligence dont count or matter these days
Joseph C. Markfelder
Mr. McFarlane, good point regarding sensationalism in the news these days. And apparently the most sensationalist news writers get promoted to headline writers.
Alan Jones, this had NOTHING to do with lack of tree removal on the part of the railroad. The incident happened near the Carquinez Regional Shoreline. It looks like several trees came down the hill side. I am guessing part of the hill may have let go. It was pouring rain all day.
I was in Martinez yesterday, had just left the mom and pop Hot Dog Depot and gotten in the car when I heard the 911 tone up on the scanner. At first I thought it was 543, since they were coming off the bridge and maybe they hit a trespasser or something. The dispatcher answered and 534’s engineer calmly replied they had hit a tree at MP 28.8 and had derailed. I was very impressed with how calm and professional both the Amtrak crew and the dispatcher were. There was a sense of urgency but no panic. Given traffic in the Bay area at that time of day, the Amtrak people got there pretty quickly. After hearing it was just the cab car lead truck, my first thought was “Cut the cab car and run back west.” And that’s exactly what Amtrak and UP came up with. The dispatcher wanted to get 534 west of the area where the trees had come down to minimize or eliminate the risk of anything else falling on the train. Again, very calm and professional handling of the situation from both sides. They got trains moving again through there in pretty short order, considering the situation. I would say job well done by all, particularly the train crews and the dispatcher with how this was handled.
The RRs are not doing enough tree removal. With many lines not having any code lines for signals or communications these RR are saving money (?) by neglecting tree removal.
Tree removal is not the responsibility of the railroads, and when you have 30 – 50 foot tall trees that might be 20 – 30 feet from the rail right of way there’s not need to remove them. The tree in this case was probably on someone elses property, and you can’t just cut down trees will nilly, you need a PERMIT to remove any tree unless it’s deemed a hazard by an arborist, at least in parts of California.
Well that’s so not gonna help with Amtrak’s current capacity constraints. All joking aside, I hope that nobody is seriously hurt.
Is it just me, or do headline writers have a tendency these days to lead with the fact that a train derailed, but without mentioning what seems to be a very obvious cause? What would have been wrong with a headline reading ‘Bay Area Amtrak Train Hits Downed Tree, Derails’? In these days when railroad safety is under enhanced scrutiny, wouldn’t it be better to avoid giving a casual reader the perception that another train left the tracks due to some fault of its own?
It’s the lamestream media, at least when it comes to reporting on railroad events. They will never learn and nothing railroad officials can do or say will change them.
You would expect a better headline from Trains, not a headline that looks like it was written to sensationalize the news and get views.