Most Vermont trains are back in service after last week’s flooding washed out the tracks

Passenger and freight rail in central and northern Vermont was disrupted by flooding last week, but nearly all lines were back in service Monday, according to the state Transportation Agency.

Freight rail service between Montpelier and Barre resumed Monday morning, while another stretch of freight rail in the Northeast Kingdom could take another week and a half to be operational again.

Last Wednesday and early Thursday, a large swath of Vermont was bombarded with heavy rain as the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl made their way across the state. Two deaths were reported related to the ensuing flooding, as well as significant damage in many Vermont communities.

In an interview Monday, Vermont Rail System President Selden Houghton said the damage was not as disruptive as last July, when the entire system was hit by historic flooding and repairs took weeks.

“It wasn’t as significant and widespread as last year, but it was still significant in a concentrated area,” Houghton said.

Like many roads, rail lines in central and northern Vermont suffered significant losses, according to Dan Delabruere, director of the state transportation agency’s rail and aviation office. In addition, he told VTDigger, Addison County State Railroad, which serves the Amtrak Ethan Allen Express train to Burlington, “received minor flood damage along some of the banks.”

Amtrak public relations manager Jason Abrams reported that the Ethan Allen Express ended up in Saratoga Springs, missing all of its stops in Vermont last Wednesday and Thursday. On Friday, state transportation officials said the Ethan Allen passengers were being bused from Middlebury to Burlington.

Unrelated to the flooding, Amtrak’s Vermonter line, which runs through the central part of the state, was replaced last Thursday by buses from New Haven, Conn., to St. Alban. Abrams said this was part of scheduled maintenance that shut down service most weekdays in April as well as last weekend and will continue through Nov. 1.

Across the state, several freight lines were significantly affected by flood damage, Houghton said. Between Barre and Montpelier, the Washington County Railroad saw mud and debris on the tracks and some minor breakdowns. Houghton said repairs began Thursday and the first train back was running Monday morning.

North of Barnet, along the Connecticut River, Houghton said the damage was more extensive and more complicated to manage. Several washouts in the Lyndonville area have already been repaired, but there are washouts in Barnet that have continued to block operations between there and St. Johnsbury, he said.

In Barnet, damaged areas of the railway have no access roads and can only be accessed by the railway itself, Houghton said. To repair that stretch, he said the Vermont Rail System first had to bring in specialized repair equipment, such as track excavators. He estimated that repairs to the Barnet damage would take another week and a half.

Delabruere also noted many canal failures on the freight line between Barnet and Newport, but he wrote that “the railway received no damage from Barnet to White River (Junction) and that section of the line continues to work”.