ATLANTA — The tricky task of removing a derailed MARTA train from the tracks between Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and College Park has been delayed until later Thursday.
According to MARTA Chief of Rail Operations Dave Springstead, two cars came off the rails as the train was heading back to the train yard around 8:49 p.m. The incident also sparked a brief fire underneath due to an energized rail though it was quickly extinguished. Power was also cut to the trains early-on.
The reasons for the incident are still unclear, but the plan to get the major train line cleared has already been put into place.
"We're going slow and methodically," Springstead said. "As long as we know service is running and we can manage and we flooded the stations with lots of staff to help move the patrons."
Springstead said that MARTA had contracted with a crane operator to remove one of the cars from the tracks. A second one is in decent enough shape that they hope to put it back on the track and send it to the rail yard for further inspection.
Four others remained on the track. MARTA officials said Wednesday night that the four that didn't derail have been uncoupled from the two derailed cars and will be pulled into South Yard.
"Our immediate step which is to continue to stabilize the site, uncouple the cars in sequence and make sure that everyone remains safe," Springstead said Wednesday.
Now that the remaining two cars are stable, the crane can be used to lift them back on the track. Crews are also on site to repair the damaged infrastructure.
However, this process has faced some delay as MARTA operators attempt to make sure the process is completed safely.
"Our schedule, optimistically is by sundown, today, we would love to have those two cars off the bridge and in our rail facility," Springstead said in an update, Thursday.
Springstead added that even with the two remaining cars, work has begun to repair the track immediately underneath them.
Since a second track was undamaged by the incident, MARTA will be running a shuttle train on it between the airport and College Park stations.
Springstead said that MARTA will have extra station agents, revenue agents and maintenance personnel at both stations to help guide riders. They will also be running some of the larger MARTA buses to handle excess capacity.
It's still not clear what caused the train to derail; though, a supervisor at the airport heard a loud noise outside and went to investigate only to discover the cars off the track. MARTA officials said it appears the train, which consists of six cars, was heading in the right direction with four cars crossing the interlocking without incident when the sixth rail car failed to follow the proper route which resulted in the derailment of the fifth and sixth rail cars.
Springstead said he has been with MARTA for 21 years and called the incident an "unusual occurrence" but wouldn't venture a guess as to what caused the trains to leave the track - though he did say that it was very cold that night.
A thorough investigation is expected to reveal more.