By Railfan & Railroad Staff

St. PAUL, Minn. — The National Transportation Safety Board is launching an investigation into a multi-train collision that occurred in St. Paul, Minn., on Wednesday night. 

Shortly after 5 p.m., on August 25, a Canadian Pacific train collided with a Union Pacific train at a switch on CP tracks near Dayton’s Bluff. Two CP locomotives and a UP locomotive left the rails. That collision resulted in the derailment of a lumber car in the middle of a BNSF Railway train on an adjacent track. No one was injured but the train did temporarily close a critical main line through the Twin Cities. 

On Thursday, the NTSB announced it would be investigating the incident. It’s unclear what role Positive Train Control played in the collision — or if it was even in use at the time — although the event was exactly the type of incident that PTC is meant to prevent.