Incidents like the April 12 derailing of two cars on Amtrak's Empire Builder train do not deter riders, according to Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.

The cars derailed as the train, which travels from Chicago to Spokane, Wash., was passing from one track to another about three miles from the Milwaukee station. Magliari said the incident is unlikely to affect business because no one was injured and such events are infrequent.

"It's certainly an unusual occurrence," he said. "In the Midwest, I don't deal with it more than a couple of times in a typical year."

The cause of the derailment is yet to be determined. Likely reasons for the problem are human error or mechanical failure, Magliari said.

He said Amtrak is currently analyzing the situation and will take action to prevent a similar incident in the future.

"If it turns out to be human error, there's additional training and education. If it's mechanical failure, it's inspecting the infrastructure to make sure it's running properly," he said.

Randy Wade, passenger rail manager with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, agreed that derailments or other technical problems do not seem to be hindering train usage.

"It's been skyrocketing," Wade said. "We've seen significant increases." He said passenger numbers are up overall in Wisconsin because of the success of the Hiawatha Service between Milwaukee and Chicago.

The Department has worked extensively with Amtrak on its Hiawatha line. Wade said about 470,000 customers use the service every year and there were 23.3 percent more riders this March than last March.

Although derailments and delays may not have deterred many customers from taking the train, they have inconvenienced some users, including students.

Alison Griffith, sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, has taken Amtrak's Empire Builder train about five times between St. Paul, Minn. and Milwaukee. She had not heard about the train's recent derailment, but has experienced other delays.

On one trip, the train's "cow catcher" broke off and the train "ended up sitting in the country for hours," according to Griffith.

Sara Podoll, sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, was also affected by a delay of the Empire Builder train. She said on one of her trips, the train never arrived in Minnesota because it got stuck in South Dakota and Amtrak had to bus its passengers to Milwaukee.

Train derailments may be an infrequent occurrence, but Magliari acknowledged incidents such as those described by Griffith and Podoll happen more often.

"We handle service disruptions all the time," Magliari said. "It's always difficult, and it's always an inconvenience for passengers, which is why we always apologize."

Such disruptions make some riders nervous but still do not seem to hinder people from taking the train.

"There are always incidents but they're never really life threatening," Grifith said. "I don't have a car, so sometimes it's my only option."

Derailments and delays often gain attention but Wade said taking a train is still more reliable than other modes of transportation.

"In terms of passenger miles served, rail is just so much safer than the highway mode," he said. "You hear about these things, but you don't hear about all the car crashes."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 21 2005.