Rail Runner derails in Santa Fe
No injuries caused by issue that official blamed on unspecified malfunction
The New Mexico Rail Runner Express derailed early Thursday morning in the Santa Fe Railyard, forcing the closure of the Manhattan Avenue rail crossing and the relocation of boarding. No passengers were on board the train at the time, and no one was injured, a Rail Runner spokeswoman said.
Augusta Meyers said the derailment was caused by “some malfunction with the track.”
Passenger boarding and disembarking operations were moved closer to the Santa Fe Farmers Market, she said, because the derailed train was sitting near the Santa Fe Depot, where passengers normally get on and off the commuter train. The problem didn’t otherwise affect the train schedule.
“Because it’s at the depot, we don’t have too many issues to work around,” she said Thursday morning, adding that the malfunction was “kind of perplexing. I’ve never seen us have a derailment issue.”
Rail Runner Operations Manager Robert Gonzales said later Thursday that any passengers who planned to disembark at the depot but needed wheelchair access or assistance were provided a shuttle at the South Capitol station that took them to the depot. Only a few people needed the service, and it went smoothly, he added.
Two cranes lifted the train back on the tracks Thursday afternoon, Gonzales said, while track repairs continued into the evening.
Crews were still investigating the cause of the derailment, he said, but trains will resume normal operations Friday morning out of the Santa Fe Depot.
The derailed train, No. 502, will be sent to Albuquerque for inspections, he said, while another train will be used in its place.
Several wheels of the train were lodged in the gravel alongside the rail. Gonzales said the track had rolled from underneath the train as it started pulling out around 5:30 a.m. to get aligned for its first southbound trip.
There are no plans for inspections on other sections of the Rail Runner track, he said.
“This is just one anomaly that happened,” Gonzales said. “These things happen all the time. … There’s a lot of things that could happen.”
This was the Rail Runner’s first derailment in its 10 years of operation, he said.