Mudslide halts Amtrak service on West Side

TACOMA – A mudslide halted passenger Amtrak train service from Seattle to Portland on Monday, amid a steady rain that has kept most of Western Washington water-logged for several weeks.

The slide occurred around 1 p.m. about 18 miles south of Tacoma, said Gus Melonas, spokesman for BNSF Railway, which owns the tracks.

Amtrak was arranging bus service to transport passengers who were already en route to Seattle and Portland on Monday, and today’s trains were canceled, Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.

A 48-hour precautionary closure of Amtrak service will remain in effect until 1 p.m. Wednesday.

Freight service resumed after railroad crews cleared the slide, which measured 3 feet deep and 40 feet long, covering two sets of tracks, Melonas said.

It took crews about a half-hour to clear one set of tracks and an hour and a half to clear the other, Melonas said.

North of Seattle, a mudslide shut down passenger rail service between Seattle and Everett on Saturday – for the third time in just more than a week.

The tracks were cleared for freight trains early Sunday, and Melonas said the typical 48-hour precautionary passenger train closure would expire Monday evening.

After 27 straight days of rain, Seattle city was closing in on a record set in 1953, when it rained for 33 consecutive days.

But the rain dried up Sunday, resetting the record clock just in time for it to start raining again on Monday.