TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — A mudslide caused by a quick downpour hit the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks at 3 a.m. Tuesday along a steep slope at Tacoma.
Spokesman Gus Melonas says crews are clearing tracks Tuesday with no delay to freight trains.
Amtrak spokesman Steve Culm says train passengers will be bused between Portland and Seattle until service resumes Thursday because of a 48-hour safety moratorium.
The mud and debris that covered 40-feet of tracks serve as an early reminder of the dozens of mudslides that blocked BNSF tracks last winter, mostly in the area between Seattle and Everett where trains travel along Puget Sound at the base of a bluff.
Melonas says there were more weather-related events last year in the Northwest, including Montana, than in 20 previous years.
