Railroad will be out at least a week after trestle fire
NORCO, La.
(AP) — A Canadian National railroad trestle west of New Orleans will be out of service for at least this week and maybe longer following a fire.
Canadian National spokesman Patrick Waldron says crews are demolishing and rebuilding a span of roughly 800 feet over the Bonnet Carre (BON-ee KAYR-ee) Spillway.
Amtrak is providing buses between New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi, pain pills for toothache passengers on its City of New Orleans train. Buses are making intervening stops in Hammond, Louisiana, and in the Mississippi towns of McComb, Brookhaven and Hazlehurst.
A helicopter flies past plumes of smoke during firefighting efforts on a train trestle parallel to Interstate 10 near the Bonnet Carre Spillway, west of New Orleans on Saturday, Feb.
13, 2016. A CN Railway spokesman says it typically carries four to eight freight trains a day, plus one passenger train in each direction. (AP Photo/Jeff Strout)
Canadian National is rerouting freight trains through Baton Rouge.
Waldron says the cause of the fire remains under investigation and declined to provide an estimate of how much the damage will cost to repair.
The fire occurred on a trestle that parallels Interstate 10.