SEATTLE - A significant stretch of Washington railway is shut down. Landslides just north of Vancouver, Washington have forced BNSF to close tracks between Portland and Seattle.
All Amtrak Cascades service between Seattle and Portland is canceled, with buses offered as a substitute for train service. Normally scheduled Amtrak operations will continue south of Portland.
One slide occured in the Felida area of Clark County late Monday, and another slide happened nearby Tuesday morning. BNSF Railway placed a 48-hour moratorium on the tracks. While freight service has resumed, all Amtrak rail traffic is suspended until Thursday morning.
It's a common policy not to allow passenger rail traffic 48 hours after a slide is cleared.
"It’s all you can do. when it rains hard that’s what we’re up against. So it’s just a mud slide and across the track and you can’t do anything about it," said Rod Lee, as he waited to board a northbound bus at the Amtrak station in Vancouver on Tuesday morning.
Empire Builder and Coast Starlight service are the two routes impacted.
Updates will be posted at amtrak.com/alerts.