CULBERTSON, Mont. – Railroad tracks have reopened in northeast Montana as crews continue removing wreckage from a crude oil train derailment.
The tracks east of Culbertson reopened Friday night after 22 oil tankers derailed Thursday evening and leaked an estimated 35,000 gallons of oil, BNSF Railway spokesman Matt Jones said.
Both lanes of traffic on U.S. Highway 2 have reopened. The derailed oil tankers remained adjacent to the highway Saturday morning as crews continued working to remove the damaged cars.
Personnel from the Federal Railway Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are investigating the incident.
The train, carrying 106 oil tankers with Bakken crude owned by Statoil, was traveling from Trenton, N.D., to Washington state when it derailed just after 6 p.m. MDT Thursday.
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The train derailment caused more disruptions for Amtrak service, which had been disrupted earlier in the week because of a train derailment in the same Montana county along the North Dakota border. Normal service has resumed on Amtrak’s Empire Builder.
No one was hurt and no fires resulted from either incident.
The cause of both derailments remains under investigation by BNSF, which Jones said could take weeks.
