{"id":40515,"date":"2022-05-19T01:12:46","date_gmt":"2022-05-19T07:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-railroad-resumes-service-clarifies-fire-precautions\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:56:13","slug":"durango-railroad-resumes-service-clarifies-fire-precautions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-railroad-resumes-service-clarifies-fire-precautions\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango railroad resumes service, clarifies fire precautions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Passengers
Passengers rode a Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad train on Friday for the first time since the 416 Fire broke out June 1. The diesel-powered train took passengers from the depot to the railroad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s event park in the Animas Valley north of Durango. Because of extreme fire danger, the railroad has parked its coal-fired steam engines. Steam-engine trips to Silverton will resume July 4, if conditions permit. Three daily trips from the depot to the event park will be offered Saturday and Sunday. Beginning Monday, diesel train trips will be available from Rockwood Station to Cascade Canyon. For more information, visit durangotrain.com.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad ran trains Wednesday after a three-day hiatus out of an abundance of caution for fire danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to be sensitive to any fire precaution levels for the season, but in the meantime and for the foreseeable future, we\u2019re in full-swing operation,\u201d said Jeff Johnson, general manager for D&SNG.<\/p>\n

Sunday through Tuesday the railroad paused operations because of elevated fire risk identified by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. The federal agencies raised their Industrial Fire Precaution Level rating to Level 4, their highest designation, at which time D&SNG paused operations because of its settlement with the federal government earlier this year for the train\u2019s role in the 416 Fire.<\/p>\n

As part of the settlement, the railroad agreed to comply with the Forest Service\u2019s and BLM\u2019s Durango Interagency Dispatch Center Industrial Fire Restrictions Plan, which mandates that the train pause operations when the IFPL reaches Level 4.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Wednesday that D&SNG had returned to normal operations and there were no precautions that would cause the train to stop in the immediate future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the moment, we don\u2019t see (in the forecast) any particular indication that we\u2019re going to be in Level 4, but we\u2019re just watching it closely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With summer fast approaching and hot and dry weather settling in, D&SNG does not yet know whether pauses for wildfire danger will be chronic during the tourism season.<\/p>\n

There were a total of three Level 4 days in 2021 and 22 in 2020, according to the Durango Interagency Dispatch Center Industrial Fire Restrictions Plan.<\/p>\n

From 2010 to 2021, an average of six days per year were rated Level 4.<\/p>\n

In its first year using the Industrial Fire Restrictions Plan precautions, D&SNG plans to operate as normal while following any restrictions implemented by the federal agencies, Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not expected to be long term or consistent, but we\u2019re prepared for it if it is at any time,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2026 The way the forecasting and the way the system works, so many different conditions are factored into that level rating.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Juan National Forest did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, D&SNG added an additional train to accommodate passengers affected by the pause. Johnson said the railroad will look at alternatives such as scheduling passengers on other days if operations are again forced to pause.<\/p>\n

If there are any future interruptions, the train will communicate with passengers, Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism and the guest experience in Durango and on the railroad right now is business as normal and nothing has changed,\u201d he said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

For the 50th Iron Horse Bicycle Classic, cyclists will still have a chance to race against the train. Both D&SNG\u2019s 8:15 and 9 a.m. trains will be running on race day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur expectation is not that this is going to be chronically stressful or last-minute. Going through the first day of a Level 4, we were just not expecting anything that quickly, so we\u2019re adapting,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWe expect things to roll pretty strong and so far reservations are up in general, and I think reservations across town are still real robust.\u201d<\/p>\n

ahannon@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a three-day pause, rides started again Wednesday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[950,170,350,28,2399,327,2591,259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-durango","tag-durango-and-silverton-narrow-gauge-railroad-co","tag-fire","tag-headlines","tag-railway","tag-silverton","tag-transport","tag-transportation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84675,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40515\/revisions\/84675"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40515"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}