BNSF News

Additional commuter route offered by BNSF in the wake of Skagit River Bridge collapse

2013-06-05

On May 23, the Skagit River Bridge near Burlington, Wash., collapsed after a vehicle carrying an oversized load struck one of the supporting steel trusses.

Because the accident occurred in the late evening, the bridge had very little traffic at the time of the collapse. Only two other vehicles fell into the river and, fortunately, no deaths resulted. The 58-year-old bridge typically carried 71,000 vehicles per day and served as a major connection along Interstate 5 from Seattle to the northern parts of Washington.

The loss of the Skagit Bridge has caused travel delays and detours for thousands of commuters who used this route, and the bridge outage is expected to last until September while a replacement bridge is under construction.

To assist commuters and other area residents, BNSF quickly stepped up and has worked to add another Amtrak round-trip train to the schedule between Bellingham and Seattle over an existing rail bridge spanning the Skagit River.

BNSF owns the tracks on the rail bridge, which have been leased for commuter use.

"The bridge collapse has created a highly difficult and unusual situation for those having to travel the I-5 corridor and calls for extraordinary measures to temporarily add additional service," said Mark Schulze, BNSF vice president, Safety, Training and Operations Support. "We will do our best to accommodate the additional traffic and we're glad to do it."

In 2012, the commuter routes on BNSF-owned track averaged 11,500 customers per day in the Seattle area.

The Washington State Department of Transportation and Amtrak have been notified of the additional service offer and an updated schedule will soon be published.

A permanent bridge over the Skagit River is scheduled to be built by mid-September.

BNSF Headquarters

BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000

For more information on the company and its transportation solutions, visit the BNSF Web site at www.bnsf.com