July 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment
On the evening of July 18, 2013, a CSX freight train carrying municipal solid waste on tracks of the Hudson Line along the Harlem River Ship Canal in the New York City borough of The Bronx partially derailed between the Marble Hill and Spuyten Duyvil stations. While no one was injured, the derailment caused over US$800,000 in damage and took several days to clean up. Commuter rail service by Metro-North Railroad, which owns the line, was suspended for two weekends in order to fully restore normal operations.
| Spuyten Duyvil derailment (July 2013) | |
|---|---|
A waste container spilled on the tracks shortly after the accident | |
| Details | |
| Date | July 18, 2013 8:29 p.m. EDT (12:19 UTC) |
| Location | Between Spuyten Duyvil and Marble Hill stations, Bronx, NY |
| Coordinates | 40.87590°N 73.91681°W |
| Country | United States |
| Line | Hudson Line |
| Operator | CSX |
| Incident type | Derailment |
| Cause | Excessive track gauge |
| Statistics | |
| Trains | 1 |
| Crew | 4 |
| Deaths | 0 |
| Injured | 0 |
| Damage | US$827,000 |
After investigating the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found it had been caused by the track stretching to an excessive gauge at the point of derailment. It did not fault the crew, instead criticizing Metro-North for failing to maintain the track and surrounding ballast to the point that the track went out of gauge. Later in the year, in a comprehensive safety review after another derailment of a passenger train nearby resulted in the first passenger fatalities in Metro-North's history, the NTSB cited the maintenance shortfall as part of an inadequate "safety culture" at the railroad.