Report: Small Fuel Spill Reported Following BNSF Derailment
Written by Carolina Worrell, Senior Editor
BNSF photo
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) says it is sending an investigator to “probe a train collision and derailment” that involved two BNSF trains at a subdivision in New Westminster, B.C., on Nov. 19 at approximately 2:30 a.m. CDT, according to a CBC News report.
BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent issued a statement Sunday morning saying, “two locomotives and five cars carrying a variety of freight derailed” but that “no one was injured” and there was “no threat to the public.” The statement also said that “no hazardous materials were compromised,” according to the CBC News report.
However, Kent said in a later statement to CBC News that “fuel from one of the locomotives had spilled.”
“We did discover some of [the] fuel from the locomotive that leaked, and we are recovering any spilled fuel and remediating the site around the locomotive,” said Kent, who added that the derailment occurred near Highway 91, south of Vancouver, where the line was closed to rail traffic on Sunday to allow the cars to be “re-railed,” according to the CBC News report.
BNSF on Nov. 19 issued the following alert on its website following the incident:
“On Sunday, November 19th, 2023, at 04:29 a.m. CDT, we received a preliminary report of a BNSF train derailment near Oliver, BC which has affected the main tracks. BNSF field personnel are responding to assess the derailment site. The estimated time for opening the main track is Monday, November 20th at 18:00 p.m. CDT.”
According to the CBC News report, the track closures meant that the Amtrak Cascades passenger train service was canceled between Vancouver and Seattle early Sunday.
Amtrak has been providing updates on its X (formerly Twitter) account, which can be found here.
