Amtrak service on a rural Wisconsin train track that has seen two derailments in recent years resumed on Sunday, Aug. 16, less than 48 hours after a CPKC train, carrying crude oil, derailed in Dodge County.
CPKC spokesperson Patrick Waldron said in an Aug. 16 statement that workers repaired and reopened one rail, but in a follow-up statement Aug. 18, said both tracks were reopened Aug. 18 after track repair work and safety inspections.
A CPKC train lies detailed between Maiden Lane Road and the village of Reeseville in the town of Lowell on Aug. 15. About 22 of the train’s 95 cars derailed, according to the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office.
Amtrak said in a statement that service has been restored. Amtrak carries passengers between Chicago and Minneapolis along this railway.
The Aug. 15 derailment near Reeseville in Lowell leaked crude oil into the ground at about a 1 gallon per minute rate, officials said. The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Aug. 16 that all leaking rail cars had been contained.
Waldron said environmental and hazardous materials teams remain on site working on the cleanup and removal of the derailed cars. The involved cars have all been secured and staged for offloading. The crude oil leak is contained and has been recovered, according to Waldron. Cleanup will continue in the coming days.
CPKC teams have not found any hazards in air quality monitoring, the company said. CPKC will continue air monitoring and has “environmental and hazardous material teams” on site to continue investigating the derailment.
The derailment’s cause is under investigation but it happened in the same area as another Canadian Pacific train that derailed near Reeseville two years ago.
“We need to make sure that this doesn’t happen again,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt said. “And they need to take some steps to either reduce the speed limit or change some of the low-grade designs.”
Forty-eight train derailments occurred in Wisconsin between 2022 and May 31, 2025, according to Federal Railroad Administration data. Two derailments occurred between January and May 31, according to the data.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Amtrak resumes service along Dodge County track where train derailed