Crews clear train spillage in Bonners Ferry

BOISE – The stretch of remote, north Idaho railroad track where a BNSF Railway train derailed and spilled an estimated 20 tons of Montana wheat has been fixed and reopened.

BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said regular train traffic resumed Tuesday morning along a section that parallels the Kootenai River 18 miles east of Bonners Ferry.

Melonas said the cause of Sunday’s mishap is still under investigation.

A train and 24 rail cars destined for Washington veered off the tracks, spilling grain and prompting cleanup crews to mobilize to the site immediately.

Nobody was injured, but Melonas said 22 of the rail cars were destroyed and will be torn up and hauled away as scrap over the next several weeks.

The company has also brought in trucks designed to vacuum the spilled grain.