Passenger rail service between Everett and Seattle will remain sidelined through at least Wednesday morning after heavy rain and soggy ground sent mud sliding down cliffs and over railroad tracks at 20 locations between Everett and Snohomish.

Just when the trains will resume running won’t be

determined until after a thorough evaluation of soil conditions. The earliest will be 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

Burlington Northern Sante Fe railroad crews using cranes and other heavy equipment spent several hours Monday cleaning up 25 slides covering one or both directions of track in Western Washington, company spokesman Gus Melonas said Monday.

Twenty of those slides were between Everett and Seattle, Melonas said.

Crews kept equipment near the tracks in case there were more slides Monday night.

Freight trains were able to resume their routes by 2:30 p.m. Monday.

There have been more than 50 slides so far this winter, which is the most since 1996, Melonas said.

“It’s just heavy rain and the ground’s saturated,” Melonas said.

Sounder commuter rail service was cancelled Monday and Tuesday between Everett and Seattle.

Wednesday’s service also will be affected in the morning. It wasn’t known Monday if passenger trains would resume service by Wednesday afternoon, , spokeswoman Kimberly Reason said.

The transit agency was suggesting bus routes for its rail riders.

There have been more than 20 closures of passenger rail service so far this winter, Melonas said.

“This has clearly been the most challenging year we have had in a long time,” he said.

State Department of Transportation crews also cleaned up a mud slide Monday morning that blocked westbound Highway 525 at 15th Place in Mukilteo.

The Everett area was soaked with 1.45 inches of rain between midnight Saturday and 5 p.m. Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Seattle.

For the first two weeks of March, there have been 3.4 inches of rainfall.

“We are doubling up on normal,” meteorologist Carl Cerniglia said.

The weather service issued a flood advisory for southwest Snohomish County for Monday morning. It was based largely on the concern that heavy rainfall could cause ponds on roads and possibly send streams over their banks, Cerniglia said.

More heavy rain is expected through Tuesday night with showers in the forecast for the rest of the week.

“Slugs are happy,” Cerniglia said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.