CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Police in Chambersburg have cited CSX Transportation 49 times this year for violation of a state blocked-crossing law, the local newspaper reports. The railroad is seeking to invalidate those citations on the grounds the law is not enforceable.
The Chambersburg Public Opinion reports Chambersburg police began tracking issues at Orchard Drive in the borough, about an hour southwest of Harrisburg, after moving into a temporary station near the grade crossing while the regular police station is being renovated. Since January, CSX has pleaded not guilty to 29 citations; eight have been dismissed, and please have yet to be filed in 12 citations issued since April 12.
Pennsylvania law prohibits grade crossings from being blocked for more than 5 minutes. The case by the law firm representing CSX that the law is unenforceable centers on the position that the federal government, not the states, regulate matters of interstate commerce. That has led to similar laws being struck down in a number of states, most recently in Ohio [see “Ohio Supreme Court strikes down blocked-crossing law,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 18, 2022].
The Ohio case has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorneys general from 20 states have filed an amicus brief in that case questioning such decisions [see “Kansas attorney general joins group …,” News Wire, Dec. 23, 2022], and the Supreme Court has asked the federal government for its view on the case [see “Supreme Court asks federal government for opinion …,” News Wire, March 21, 2023]
Meanwhile, in the Chambersburg case, CSX’s law firm also argued that police failed to investigate to see if any of the exceptions to the state law applied. Those include when a train is moving, when switching is underway, or when no vehicles are waiting to cross. The crossing is less than a mile from the CSX intermodal facility in Chambersburg.
CSX said in a statement to the newspaper that it could not discuss the citations but “maintains an open line of communication with local officials and has a long history of working with our communities to mitigate operational impacts, including identifying crossings that are ideal candidates for safety improvements, grade separation, consolidation or closure.”
States can’t issue any kind of rules that pertain to interstate commerce. That is why the laws dealing with how long a train can block a railroad crossing will be thrown out of Federal Court.
At the same time railroads “SHOULD” work with the Cities, Counties , & States dealing with these issues. If not, some history minded politician may remember a situation from almost 90 years ago. The story goes like this:
US Senator and former Governor in a southern state wanted to get special excursion rate for University students to attend the 1934 game in against an out of state conference rival. Railroad quoted a price of $19.00 (a lot of money back then). Senator objected and wanted a much lower price. Railroad wouldn’t budge. Senator contacted the Railroad president. Said he was in touch with his state’s railroad commissioner who stated the railroad’s property was assessed at about $100,000.00 and paid a little over $1,500.00 in property taxes the previous year. Said he was going to have the commission have all property assessor’s in the counties that railroad had property in, revalue that company’s property. Estimated it would come back to between $1.2 & $1.5 million. 3 or 4 hours later the Senator was notified that the rate quote dropped to $7 per ticket. Five train loads containing nearly 5,000 went to game.
States cant fine railroads for the way they operate. On the other hand States, Counties , Cities CAN impose property taxes to get the railroads attention.
Amtrak generally doesn’t block grade crossings but it does go fast on its own track. They recently removed their last three grade crossings in PA, all near Lancaster. Two were replaced by bridges and one by improved approaches to an existing bridge. Comm. of PA put up some of the money.
The blocked crossings problem seems to be getting increased national attention lately. Recently NewsNation did a special on this, focusing on Hammond, IN, where kids reportedly pass over/under stopped freights to get to school. Will be interesting to watch developments, since both sides seem to have valid arguments.
Doesn’t the railroad own the right of way and grant an easement for the road in most cases? Simple fix would be to revoke the road easement. Can’t block a crossing if it no longer exists.
Chambersburg is an excellent example of these small towns acting as their own nation and dictatorship with the local police acting as the military enforcers and army trying to protect their little kingdom from the big bad railroad invading their space. Who knows if any of these citations are really legimate or another way for the town politicians and police to pocket the money collected for their own personal means and uses. Chambersburg sounds like one of those “sppedtrap” towns where the police and local law enforcement run a crooked system of issuing citations and fines and pocket the money for themselves. This town would be the first ones to moan and groan and complain if CSX decided to pull up the rails or eliminate services and shipments to their little kingdom.Motorists and truck drivers Beware Chambersburg is out to get you also and hit you in your wallet and pockets with ambushes and traps set up to catch you and hit you with fines and citations that are not legimmate or even legal except to a local judge or magistrate with the intent to pocket the money collected for themselves
Joseph C. Markfelder
The solution may be a Federal cap on the length of RR crossing delays.
CSX (and NS) would be wise to isolate PA from their rail networks as much as possible. Certainly trucks can handle it.
Isolate PA? And Ohio? And all of the other states that want to impose local restrictions on railroad operations?
If local governments can regulate interstate commerce then there is no such thing as interstate commerce. That would imasculate the Federal Government and the Constitution. If that is preferable there has to be nationwide agreements to amend the Constitution to give primacy to the States in government of interstate commerce. We would all be 50 little fiefdoms. We can go that way but a mess we would make.
I don’t think a railroad has ever lost one of these cases on final appeal, although lower state courts may have differed. Also, my gut tells me the town did not go through the”exceptions.”