Feb 1, 2008 11:58 pm US/Eastern
400 On Trains Trapped In Donner Pass
Amtrak Officials Say Rescue In Progress, But Buses All In Arizona For Super Bowl
DONNER PASS, Calif. (CBS) ―
Nearly 400 people were trapped Friday when two Amtrak passenger trains were stranded in the snowy Northern California mountains after a large snow plow fell through the tracks, officials said.
Amtrak's California Zephyr passenger trains were stranded near Donner Pass around 2 p.m. after a large plow being used to clear the tracks fell through a walkway and blocked the trains' path, according to Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero.
One train started in Emeryville on its way to Chicago, and the other was on its way back.
"Our trains were just sitting there, we were not able to get them through," she explained.
Romero said late Friday night that Union Pacific was bringing in a crane to clear the large snow plow from the trains' path. She expected the tracks would be cleared by 4 a.m. Saturday.
Meanwhile, the westbound train was being pulled back to Reno and the 165 passengers onboard would be put up in a hotel overnight.
The eastbound train could not be moved, however, and Romero said the passengers would sleep in their seats or in reserved sleeping cars for the night.
She said both trains had heating and lights and that passengers were being fed. No injuries were reported, but more snow had fallen since the trains became stranded.
"The weather report says it is only a light snow right now, it's not like it was earlier," Romero said. "I think the worst of it is probably over."
A Union Pacific spokeswoman, Zoe Richmond, confirmed that the company's equipment was blocking the tracks but had no other information on the incident, reported CBS station KPIX-TV in San Francisco.
Richmond said the West Coast's stormy weather has hammered Union Pacific's tracks so far in 2008.
Crews in Oregon have been working for two weeks to clear a mudslide that dumped up to 20 feet of mud and rocks on tracks used by an Amtrak line to shuttle passengers between Los Angeles and Seattle, Richmond said. Service on that line has been halted since the mudslide.
"The start of the year has just been plagued with weather-related issues," Richmond said.
Amtrak's Romero said Amtrak had tried to summon buses from nearby towns to evacuate passengers, but have had little luck because many of the vehicles were in Arizona for the Super Bowl.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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