SEATTLE - Burlington Northern Santa Fe says another mudslide is blocking train tracks south of Edmonds. It's the third slide in the same area since Saturday morning.
Burlington Northern spokesman Gus Melonas says a rain-saturated slope south of Edmonds gave way around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. The slide covers both tracks and is about 20 feet deep and 40 feet wide. The slide took about 40 trees down, and flowed over the seawall and into the Puget Sound.
Melonas says a signal warned the operators of a southbound Sound Transit train that there could be trouble ahead, minutes before the slide occurred. The Sound Transit train backed up to Edmonds.
Crews hope to remove enough debris to get freight traffic moving again by Tuesday afternoon, but the tracks will be closed to passenger traffic until 8:15 a.m. Thursday.
Sounder commuter rail service between Everett and Seattle will not run until the Thursday evening commute at the soonest because of mudslides across the tracks.
Riders can check the Sound Transit Web site www.soundtransit.org or call the toll-free service hotline (1-888-889-6368) for information.
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