{"id":263451,"date":"2026-04-23T22:48:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:48:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263451\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:48:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:48:19","slug":"austin-freight-train-derailment-causes-downtown-road-closures-thursday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263451\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin freight train derailment causes downtown road closures Thursday"},"content":{"rendered":"

Austin police responded Thursday to a freight\u00a0train derailment<\/a> in downtown Austin just before 4:45 a.m. near Third Street and Bowie Street, officials said.<\/p>\n

No one was injured, and there is no threat to public safety, according to Matthew Nonweiler, a public information officer for the Austin Police Department. The 230-car train was not carrying passengers or hazardous materials, he added.<\/p>\n

As of Thursday morning, closures included intersections at Third Street and Bowie Street, Sandra Muraida Way and West Second Street, Third Street and Walter Seaholm Drive, Third Street and Lamar Boulevard, and West Mary Street and Oltorf Street crossings.<\/p>\n

Austin school district warned that some bus routes could face heavy delays due to the closures near the Seaholm District and South Lamar.<\/p>\n

Railroad employees were on scene early Thursday, but officials didn\u2019t have an estimate for how long cleanup would take.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine this is going to be multiple hours,\u201d\u00a0Nonweiler said.<\/p>\n

Union Pacific spokesperson Robynn Tysver said about seven cars jumped the track. It was not immediately clear what led to the derailment. The railroad and state officials will investigate, Nonweiler said.<\/p>\n

Train incidents are uncommon in Austin, he\u00a0added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t deal with train derailments that often,\u201d Nonweiler said. \u201cI\u2019ve worked downtown for a decade, and this is the first one in my recent memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another train derailment<\/a> occurred in October 2024, near Sixth Street in East Austin, prompting street closures and a temporary power outage. The 90-car train wasn’t carrying any hazardous materials, and no injuries were reported. There were\u00a0more derailments near the East Sixth Street crossing in 2007<\/a>, 2013<\/a>\u00a0and 2018<\/a>, with no deaths or injuries. The 2007 derailment caused diesel fuel to leak from a rail car, and it led to the enforcement of a slower speed limit at the East Sixth Street rail junction. Causes for the prior derailments were not provided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Austin police responded Thursday to a freight\u00a0train derailment in downtown Austin just before 4:45 a.m. near Third Street…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":{"0":"post-263451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}