Transportation Newsroom

Track Blamed In Train Accident Because Replacement Piece Expanded From Heat

About 6:33 p.m. central daylight time on April 6, 2004, northbound National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) train No. 58 (City of New Orleans), derailed on Canadian National Railway Company railroad track near Flora, Mississippi. The entire train, consisting of one locomotive, one baggage car, and eight passenger cars, derailed near milepost 196.5 while traveling about 78 mph. The train was carrying 61 passengers and 12 Amtrak employees. The derailment resulted in 1 fatality, 3 serious injuries, and 43 minor injuries. The equipment costs associated with the accident totaled about $7 million.

The safety issues addressed in this report are: The Canadian National Railway Company’s continuous welded rail maintenance and inspection procedures and standards; Amtrak’s emergency response training of its employees; and The Federal Railroad Administration’s oversight of continuous welded rail intenance programs and Amtrak’s emergency response training of its employees.
Other items discussed in this report include: Establishment of incident command during emergency response; and Operation of handles to remove emergency windows to allow egress from damaged cars. As a result of its investigation of this accident, the National Transportation Safety Board makes safety recommendations to the Federal Railroad inistration, the Canadian National Railway Company, and Amtrak.

The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of Amtrak’s City of New Orleans accident on April 6, 2004, near Flora, Mississippi, was the failure of the Canadian National Railway Company to properly maintain and inspect its track, resulting in a rail shift and the subsequent derailment of the train, and the Federal Railroad Administration’s ineffective oversight to ensure the proper maintenance of the track by the railroad.