By Craig Sailor

The News Tribune

Amtrak has ended the charter bus service it was using to carry train passengers around a tunnel collapse in central Oregon, cutting off train service from Washington to California.

The May 29 tunnel collapse in Oregon forced the national rail corporation to bus passengers between Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon.

On Wednesday Amtrak canceled the bus service.

“It is simply not sustainable to take people overnight on chartered buses,” Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said.

Magliari said service is expected to resume June 25, after Union Pacific finishes repairs to the tunnel.

As of now, repairs should be finished by June 23, said Union Pacific spokesman Justin Jacobs.

“That is subject to change as crews dig that out,” he said.

Several hundred feet of rock and steel liner fell from the tunnel’s ceiling onto tracks during maintenance work. No one was hurt. The tunnel is between Oakridge and Odell Lake near state Route 58.

Reopening the tunnel in the remote location has been pushed back several times.

“As we get in there, it’s a little more severe than what we thought,” Jacobs said.

Since late May, train passengers taking the Starlight to Eugene were bused to Klamath Falls, where they reboarded an Amtrak train for California. Northbound passengers made the same trip in reverse.

That ended Wednesday.

Amtrak Cascades, a separate service, is fully operational on its routes between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eugene.