COOK, Minn. — Fourteen cars of a Canadian National train derailed Saturday night north of the town of Cook, KMSP-TV reports.
The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office reported the accident occurred about 7:45 p.m. and involved a 123-car northbound train. A county emergency management team responded because some of the cars involved contained hazardous materials, but no leaks or spills were reported. There were also no injuries reported.
The derailment occurred in a swamp area about 7 miles north of Cook, which is about 27 miles north of Virginia, Minn., on the Rainy Subdivision of CN’s former Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific route between the Duluth and the Canadian border.
It seems like derailments by these long freight trains is a weekly if not daily occurrence. One wonders if the increased train length has anything to do with it and if so has management factored in the savings of longer trains vs cleanup costs and delay costs of the derailments.