JEFFERSON COUNTY, W.Va. — Regular train traffic was expected to resume at the site of a Saturday partial train derailment near Harpers Ferry before the end of the day Sunday, according to officials with CSX.
Seven train cars, all said to be empty grain cars, derailed around 2:30 a.m. Saturday at the Winchester and Potomac Railroad Bridge located between Harpers Ferry and Brunswick, Maryland.
Two of the cars ended up in the Potomac River.
No injuries were reported.
“We are blessed,” Harpers Ferry Mayor Wayne Bishop told MetroNews.
“We were really, really lucky that it didn’t happen during the day and that it wasn’t worse and that there were no environmental issues related to it, so there was nothing that ended up in the river that created environmental problems.”
By 7 p.m. Saturday, Bryan Tucker, a CSX spokesperson, said all seven cars had been recovered and they were “re-railed” by 9 p.m. with plans to move them to Brunswick on Sunday morning.
No structural damage was reported to the CSX bridge and its tracks, Tucker said.
However, a pedestrian walkway that was attached to the bridge and served as part of the Appalachian Trail was damaged and, because of that, was closed “indefinitely.”
The closed pedestrian bridge also serves as access for walkers, hikers and bikers to the Maryland Heights Trail and the C&O Canal Trail.
“That pedestrian bridge at that crossing of the Potomac is filled with tourists, especially this time of year with the holiday season, and it could have been catastrophic (at a different time of day),” Mayor Bishop said.
Cleanup work continued at the derailment site on Sunday.
“I feel pretty confident that the response that CSX provided, along with the National Park Service and the Harpers Ferry Police, that it’ll be a continuous operation and, I think, they’re going to get it taken care of pretty quick,” Bishop said.
As of Sunday, the cause of the derailment had not been determined.
The latest updates about access to Harpers Ferry National Historical Park were available HERE.