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The derailment occurred in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, Norfolk Southern said.

There is "no threat to the public, no hazardous material concerns from the railcars, and no reports of injuries to our crew members," Norfolk Southern spokesperson Connor Spielmaker said in a statement to ABC.

Images from the Nancy Run Fire Company's Facebook page show a freight train derailed and off its tracks on Riverside Drive in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania, on Saturday morning.

The train was hauling boxcars and tanker cars, the photos show. No injuries are being reported.

According to Norfolk Southern, a "small diesel fuel leak" at the derailment site has been contained with booms and will be vacuumed out. The company says such a leak is "common when locomotives are involved."

One car containing plastic pellets has spilled its contents onto the ground, which Northfolk Southern said will also be cleaned up. The derailment has led to nearby road closures.

Cleanup crews and contractors with Norfolk Southern will remain on scene over the coming days, Spielmaker said.

"We appreciate the quick, professional response by local emergency agencies," said Spielmaker. "Our crews and contractors will remain on-scene over the coming days to cleanup, and we appreciate the public's patience while they work as quickly, thoroughly, and as safely as possible. We are always working to advance safety. We will investigate this incident to understand how it happened and prevent others like it."

The derailment was caused by an eastbound train that struck a stopped train on the same track just outside Bethlehem, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Wreckage from that crash spilled onto an adjacent rail, and a westbound train struck the wreckage.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning after it was struck by a large ship, according to video obtained by CNN.

All traffic is being detoured, said Maryland Transportation Authority (MTA), and It’s unclear if anyone was injured. CNN has reached out to the Baltimore City Fire Department for additional information.

The 1.6-mile, 4-lane bridge extends over the Patapsco River and serves as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore harbor and an essential link of Interstate-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.

Gov. Wes Moore said the crew on the ship notified authorities that they had lost power.
•Moore said between a mayday call and the collapse, officials stopped the flow of traffic so that more cars were not on the bridge, potentially saving lives.



Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul J. Wiedefeld confirmed there was a crew working on the bridge at the time of the collapse.

"At this time this is an active search and rescue mission. We know there were individuals on the bridge at the time of the collapse working on the bridge, contractors for us," Wiedefeld said.

It is the deepest harbor in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay, closer to the Midwest than other East Coast ports, with five public and 12 private terminals, according to Maryland government website.

It is one of the smallest container ports on the Northeastern seaboard, handling 265,000 containers in the fourth quarter of last year, according to container shipping expert Lars Jensen.

The Port of New York and New Jersey handled around 2 million containers in that same period, and Norfolk Port in Virginia handled 850,000, so the flow of containers to Baltimore can likely be redistributed to bigger ports, Jensen said.



It is the busiest U.S. port for car shipments, handling more than 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration.
The port handles imports and exports for major automakers including Nissan (7201.T), opens new tab, Toyota (7203.T), opens new tab, General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, Volvo Car (VOLCARb.ST), opens new tab, Jaguar Land Rover (TAMOJL.UL) and Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), opens new tab, including luxury models for Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley.

It is also the largest U.S. port by volume for handling farm and construction machinery, as well as agricultural products.

Logistics companies up and down the East Coast were urgently relaying messages back and forth to clients Tuesday on the status of their imports and exports, after the Port of Baltimore was shut down in response to the collapse of the city’s Francis Scott Key Bridge. A massive rescue effort was underway Tuesday morning.

“Our first priority is engaging clients to make plans for containers that were originally routed to Baltimore that will be discharged at other ports on the Eastern Seaboard,” explained Paul Brashier, vice president of drayage and intermodal for ITS Logistics.

“These diverted volumes will impact the ports of New York/New Jersey, Norfolk and the Southeast and we have to prepare trucking and transload capacity to get that freight to its intended network,” Brashier said.

The 10,000 container-capacity vessel Dali was on its way out of the Port of Baltimore in the early hours of Tuesday morning, heading to Colombo, Sri Lanka when it collided with a bridge pillar. At the time of the collision, the vessel had two pilots from the Port of Baltimore taking it out of port.

“The immediate impact is with the cargo on board and its accessibility. Other planned shipments through Baltimore will likely be rerouted, potentially increasing cargo flow to New York, Norfolk, and nearby ports,” said Goetz Alebrand, senior vice president and head of ocean freight for the Americas at DHL Global Forwarding. “Bulk and car carriers reliant on Baltimore must assess operations in the event of a prolonged closure.”

More than 52 million tons of foreign cargo, worth some $80 billion were transported out of the port last year, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D). The eleventh largest port in the nation, Baltimore served an average of 207 calls a month last year, according to the shipping journal Lloyd’s List.

The Port of Baltimore is the top American port for the import and export of autos and light trucks, as well as wheeled farm vehicles and construction machinery. Last year, the port handled 847,158 cars and light trucks, according to data from the port.

2023 was the thirteenth consecutive year that Baltimore led American ports in the import of cars and light trucks. Other top imports include sugar and gypsum.

Breaking out the trade, $23 billion of the port’s total $55.2 billion of imports in 2023 were autos and light trucks. Around $4.8 billion of the port’s exports were motor vehicles.

“As Baltimore is primarily a roll-on/roll-off port, this disruption should create possible flatbed volumes out of other ports on the East Coast,” said D’Andrae Larry, head of Uber Freight.

chancery wrote: ↑Tue Mar 26, 2024 2:01 pm It's apparently SOP to have a work party ready at the bow to drop anchors in case of engine failure. I've read that the Dali did this, and fact was able to drop one anchor, although evidently not in time to avert the collision. Looking at the tangle of bridge structure draped over the bow, I wonder if any crew members were hurt or killed.