UP: Six more weeks to repair major Oregon rail line

UP: Six more weeks to repair major Oregon rail line Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific said last week that repairing landslide-damaged tracks along Coyote Mountain in Oregon will cost millions of dollars and require at least six more weeks to complete.
   According to UP officials, conditions on Coyote Mountain where the massive 60-acre slide wiped out 1,500 feet of the main UP north-south track in Western Oregon, remain too unstable to make more accurate estimates.
   UP has described the slide as one of the worst natural disasters to hit the railroad's Oregon operations in the past 40 years.
   Nearly 150 workers have been attempting to stabilize the base of the slope since the Jan. 19 landslide. More than 15 freight trains a day are being rerouted around the damaged track, some incurring detours as distant as Salt Lake City and delays as great as 48 hours. Amtrak's Seattle to Los Angeles Coast Starlight remains cancelled, UP officials said, though regional service on undamaged parts of the line continues.
   Amtrak reports that it is losing about 1,400 riders per day, and concerns are rising that the closure will extend into the spring rail season when ridership typically picks up.