Train crash damages estimated at $25M

By: Thad Moore, Aiken Standard

The fatal Amtrak crash outside Columbia in early February caused more damage than the past decade of South Carolina rail accidents combined.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday the Feb. 4 crash caused an estimated $25 million in damage. An Amtrak train smashed into a CSX train parked outside a terminal in Cayce, leaving behind a tangled mess of steel.

The accident, which killed two Amtrak crew members and sent scores to the hospital, was quickly regarded as one of the worst in South Carolina history.

The NTSB’s estimate highlights just how damaging the crash was: In an instant in the wee hours of the morning, the Amtrak train triggered a bigger bill than the combined total of every rail accident in the state since 2008. Those mishaps – more than 150 in all – caused less than $22 million in damage, according to a review of Federal Railroad Administration data…