A freight train derailed Thursday along Cotton Street near Montana and Wyoming Avenues in Central El Paso, leaving multiple railcars flipped over on their sides. El Paso Fire Department crews responded to the scene to assess the situation and check for hazards.
According to KVIA, the fire department reported no injuries immediately following the derailment. Emergency responders moved quickly to evaluate potential dangers at the site, though it remains unclear how many cars were involved or whether any of them were carrying hazardous materials. KDBC also reported crews were still assessing the scene Thursday afternoon.
A Familiar Stretch of Track
The Cotton Street corridor where Thursday's derailment happened runs beneath Interstate 10, adjacent to a major Union Pacific rail yard near Missouri Avenue and Brown Street, the station's earlier reporting notes. It is not the first time cars have come off the rails at this exact spot. In August 2023, up to ten grain hopper cars derailed under the Cotton Street bridge, spilling cargo and sparking a minor fire in an adjacent railcar, an incident that forced the temporary closure of nearby I-10 exit ramps, per the same outlet's coverage from that year.
El Paso has seen other derailments in recent months as well. Just weeks ago, on June 24, a separate derailment forced police to shut down traffic lanes along Railroad Drive in the city's Northeast section, according to KTSM 9 News. And in August 2022, a derailment in El Paso's Lower Valley turned deadly when two Union Pacific train cars derailed into a residential backyard, killing one person and damaging a gas line, as reported by KXXV.
Regional Rail Trouble Along I-10
The pattern extends beyond El Paso's city limits. Earlier this month, 39 cars of a Union Pacific intermodal train derailed near Lordsburg, New Mexico, roughly 147 miles west of El Paso along the same Interstate 10 rail corridor, with high winds cited as the primary factor in that crash, according to Trains Magazine.
Union Pacific operates a 23-state freight network across the western United States and serves as the principal freight rail carrier moving goods through the El Paso border region, per the company's own description of its operations. It is unclear whether Union Pacific has issued a statement specific to Thursday's Cotton Street incident.
Texas Leads the Nation in Rail Accidents
Thursday's derailment lands in a state that carries an outsized share of the nation's rail traffic. Texas has more than 12,000 miles of freight rail track, more than any other state, and leads the country in overall freight rail crossing accidents, according to Federal Railroad Administration data cited by Click2Houston. Nationally, an average of three train derailments occur every day across the country, with roughly 70 percent of them happening inside urban municipal areas, per data from the National League of Cities.
Investigators have not yet detailed the total number of railcars involved in Thursday's derailment, the cause of the wreck, or whether the Cotton Street overpass sustained any structural damage. El Paso Fire Department personnel remained on scene assessing the situation as of Thursday afternoon.
