Amtrak train evacuated; rail traffic backs up
Rows of freight trains sit parked in Whitefish on Tuesday. A combination of a derailment, winter weather and an Amtrak train halted for a bomb search delayed traffic on the BNSF Railway lines across northern Montana.
An unruly passenger who was removed from an Amtrak train in Northwest Montana later made a threat that led to the train’s evacuation, an Amtrak official said Tuesday.
Nothing dangerous was found and passengers endured an 11-hour delay, arriving in Whitefish just before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The threat added to a series of delays for trains on the BNSF Railway line across northern Montana.
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said a passenger was removed from the train in Browning shortly before 8:30 p.m. Monday. While being interviewed by local authorities, the man “somehow threatened the safety of the train.”
The train was stopped between Browning and East Glacier and its 150 passengers were taken to a middle school in Browning. Magliari says a canine unit helped search the train.
Officials did not release the man’s name or say where he boarded the train, which travels from Chicago across northern North Dakota and Montana to Seattle and Portland, Ore.
The search of the train took more than eight hours. The remainder of the delay occurred when Amtrak had to bring in a new crew because the crew on the train had reached the limit on the number of hours it could work, Magliari said Tuesday.
The trip from Browning to Whitefish usually takes about an hour by train.
Glacier County officials said the man who was removed from the train was being held in the Glacier County jail in Cut Bank.
FBI spokeswoman Debbie Dujanovic Bertram said investigators will present a case to the U.S. attorney’s office for possible charges.
The evacuated passengers were set up with sleeping bags and air mattresses at the middle school.
Magliari said the passenger rail line appreciated the hospitality of the Blackfeet Nation.
The search of the passenger train held up at least 50 freight trains, according to BNSF Railway spokesman Gus Melonas.
BNSF property also was searched in light of what Melonas called a bomb scare. Train traffic was shut down for about seven hours, Melonas said, and other recent weather delays have led some freight traffic to be delayed more than 24 hours.
Melonas called the threat the latest in a string of freight delays that began Saturday morning when the rear wheels of a BNSF locomotive derailed near Glacier National Park.
The line was shut down for about seven hours while special equipment was shipped in and used to lift the 427,000 pound locomotive back on to the tracks.
Winter weather and high winds in excess of 100 miles per hour hampered those efforts, Melonas said, and BNSF was working to get back on schedule when Monday’s traffic was halted due to the unspecified threat.
“We’re playing catch-up right now,” Melonas said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re expecting it will take in excess of 24 hours to resume normal traffic flow.”
Montana’s Hi-Line is the state’s busiest rail line. About 40 trains use the route each day.