It’s been a bad week for Sounder.
A mudslide early Friday morning – the second of the week – knocked out Sound Transit’s Everett-to-Seattle commuter service.
Trains didn’t roll Friday as hoped, said Bruce Gray, a Sound Transit spokesman.
“That pretty much shuts us down for the rest of the year,” Gray said. An estimated 365 people ride Sounder’s two round-trip trains between Everett and Seattle each day.
The 4 a.m. mudslide occurred near the same Seattle location that was struck by a slide early Wednesday morning, said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
He said passenger service can’t resume until 4 a.m. Sunday morning. Amtrak service also is not available until then.
Sounder service is scheduled to resume Tuesday.
Amtrak passengers on the Chicago-to-Seattle route are being bused from Everett to Seattle and passengers on their way to Vancouver, B.C., are being bused as well.
The tracks were not damaged, but all passenger service must be halted for 48 hours so the safety of the tracks can be checked, Melonas said.
Freight service resumed at 7:30 a.m. Friday, Melonas said. It normally resumes as soon as the mud is cleared off the tracks, he said.
There was no rain last night, but the soil was already saturated from past storms, Melonas said. He said it appears strong winds may have triggered the slide.
The mudslide appeared to be the 11th of the year to knock out Sounder service. Gray said Friday was that Sounder trains didn’t run 17 days this year from Everett to Seattle because of mudslides.
“We’re hoping to be back in service in ‘07 Tuesday morning,” Gray said. “We hope this is not a harbinger of another very, very wet January.”
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@heraldnet.com.
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