WKBT La Crosse, WI-NewsChannel 8-Tracks Re-Open Just Days After Dresbach Train Derailment

Reported by Kristen Elicerio

Tracks Re-Open Just Days After Dresbach Train Derailment

After two full days of clean up from a major train derailment near Dresbach, the railroad tracks have re-opened.

Canadian Pacific officials re-opened the tracks Thursday night. Crews worked through the night Wednesday and all day Thursday to move the 26 train cars that derailed as a result of the collision between two trains.

Thursday morning Canadian Pacific spokesman Jeff Johnson said the railroad's immediate priority after Wednesday's derailment was to eliminate any public safety hazards and environmental harms.

While contractors were moving the detrailed cars off the tracks, two more fell into the river to join the locomotive engine already there.

Johnson says crews were concerned about the possibility of diesel fuel leaking from the main engine.

"The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the DNR, we're working very close with them and they're doing testing and drilling on the river to ensure there is no product moving down river and at this point we have no product that they found down river," said Jeff Johnson, a spokesman for Canadian Pacific.

Spill response crews were also on the site to clean up liquid fertilizer that spilled as a result of the crash.

Now that what they call the "wrecking portion" of the clean up is complete, sub-contracted engineers are working at repairing the actual railroad.

Canadian Pacific says once the railways are functioning again, they'll bring in even more contractors to take care of the derailed cars left along the tracks.

"They'll be wrecking crews to come in and either cut them down and remove them or remove them on a flatbed truck," said Johnson.