[SAN DIEGO (Downtown) Sat June 6, 4:00 p.m.]
Three rail cars derailed Saturday afternoon beneath the Harbor Drive overpass just south of Park Boulevard, coming to rest against a bridge pillar and closing the waterfront arterial to traffic. The rail cars were automobile transport cars, which did not appear to be loaded.
The cars left the tracks about 4:00 p.m. on the freight line that runs under Harbor Drive, roughly 650 feet south of the Harbor Drive Pedestrian Bridge. No one was injured. The locomotive that was pushing the cars to the south had been disconnected and was parked by the convention center.
“There were no injuries and no hazardous materials involved,” BNSF Railway said in a statement. “The cars are leaning against a bridge pillar on Harbor Drive, which is currently shut down to traffic. The cause of the incident is under investigation,” according to General Director of Public Affairs Lena Kent.
San Diego Fire-Rescue confirmed it responded alongside San Diego police and other agencies. “There were no injuries, rescues, active fire or HazMat concerns,” said Candace Hadley, a public information officer for the department. A structural assessment of the overpass was being handled separately.
The line beneath the overpass is the only rail access to the Port of San Diego’s marine terminals, running south past the 10th Avenue terminal toward National City, where BNSF handles its automobile shipments. There is no parallel route around the underpass.
As observed at the scene, it appears that two of the three tracks were obscured or damaged, with the third possibly sustaining only minor damage — a degradation of capacity rather than a full cut-off of the corridor. The MTS Trolley, which runs on separate tracks, was not affected.