HAVRE, Mont. — No injuries were reported Monday after one car of the eastbound Empire Builder derailed Monday afternoon near Havre, Mont.
Amanda Frickel, Hill County coordinator for disaster and emergency services, told MTN News that the next-to-last car derailed but remained upright, confirming what appeared to be the case, based on an image posted on Twitter (see below).
The derailment occurred about 2 p.m., just west of Havre; the Amtrak Alerts Twitter feed indicates as of 6:48 CDT that the train was back on the move and running about 4 hours late.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said on Twitter that he was in touch with Amtrak about the derailment and said, “with three recent derailments in Montana,” he would be pressing the U.S. Department of Transportation “for answers and accountability.”
The Builder derailment came three days after a BNSF derailment east of Havre [see “11 cars of BNSF train derail …,” Trains News Wire, July 22, 2023] and two days after Montana Rail Link restored service on its main line, closed since June 24 by a bridge collapse and derailment [see “Rebuilt Montana Rail Link bridge … opens to traffic,” News Wire, July 24, 2023].
Photo of the derailment, via Frickel. You can see the wheels of the penultimate passenger car in the dirt #mtnews pic.twitter.com/gd68NA7oye
— Josh Margolis (@JoshMNBCMT) July 24, 2023
ALL: Please enlighten me, as I came to the TRAINS world after the days of David P Morgan. In what manner was late breaking railroad-related news offered FOR FREE back in those days? Editing a magazine which will be delivered to your door months after the contents were composed is an entirely different product than what is being offered here.
Again lots of missing information. The report says the train is on the move.So what happened to the derailed car and the one behind it. Was the car re-railed. What happened to the passengers in those cars. Poor reporting:-(
I wondered if Mr. Margolis was excited to find a reason to drop “penultimate” into a post?
Per the Hill County official website, her name is AMANDA Frickel!
Ed Burns
Amen John Pinckney
Sad, but true. Over, and over, and over. Miss Stedman, my ninth grade english teacher, also long gone, is now known as “pinwheel” Stedman.
2nd train derailment in North America in 72 hours. Let’s hope this is the last for July!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Derailment keeps calling both Amtrak and freight railroads by their names.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
4 hours late! Far better than cancellation!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
This is a cut-and-paste of the original posting from TRAINS because it will most certainly be changed once anyone at TRAINS reads what they wrote, referring to the Hill County emergency services coordinator:
“Amtrak Frickel, Hill County coordinator for disaster and emergency services, told MTN News that the next-to-last car derailed but remained upright, confirming what appeared to be the case, based on an image posted on Twitter (see below).”
AMTRAK FRICKEL??? Seriously? This person’s first name is Amtrak? The Frickel family has a long history of railroad employment in Havre, but I doubt they would go as far as to name one of their kids “Amtrak.” In reality, the person’s first name is: Amanda.
Nice going, TRAINS. Again.
David P. Morgan and Rosemary Entringer have long since left the room.
MARK: News reporting is a different world in the digital age. In exchange for near instantaneous information
we give up having everything run through layers of editing. Yes, mistakes should be corrected, but a polite note calling the attention of the author to the error might work just as well as bashing.
Pressing the DOT for answers and accountability? The DOT is a bigger clown show than Amtrak if that’s possible.