Service Resumes Over Paulsboro Rail Bridge

Bridge where derailment occurred is quickly inspected & reopened after the final derailed car is removed

Sixteen days after a train derailment and chemical spill, trains started moving again across the rail bridge that collapsed during the seven-tanker-car derailment in Paulsboro, N.J.

On Monday, the U.S. Coast Guard told NBC10 that rail traffic began again Sunday on the bridge after the final derailed rail car was removed from the Mantua Creek.

Philly.com reported that the Federal Railroad Administration said that they conducted test runs and inspected the bridge Sunday.

More details about the actual derailment, which caused the chemical vinyl chloride to get into the air -- sickening dozens of residents and causing more than a week of evacuations, were revealed Monday.

The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report on the derailment that released 180,000 pounds of a hazardous material doesn't say what caused the accident.

In the report released Monday, the NTSB says a freight train was moving at 7 mph when it derailed on a swivel-style rail bridge over Mantua Creek in Paulsboro on Nov. 30. That is below the speed limit of 10 mph.

NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman has previously said the agency is also looking into the mechanisms that lock the bridge into place.

A tanker car ruptured in the accident, releasing vinyl chloride into the air, leading to the evacuation of more than 300 families and businesses.

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