CHICAGO — Indiana residents frustrated by train-blocked grade crossings must wonder if it will take an act of Congress to clear their commutes. Fed up with the failure of state laws and federal bureaucracy to carry freight with the railroads, local politicians are aiming to do just that.
Officials at a Monday meeting of the Northwest Indiana Rail Crossing Task Force say that lobbying Congress to limiting the amount of time railroads can block crossings with trains is just the ticket Indiana residents need.
The Chicago Tribune reports that members of the rail task force want to look into getting U.S. lawmakers to reject Federal pre-emption when it comes to railroads so that state or local laws, including laws with fines, could have some effect.
Because Congress has already passed laws regarding railroads and interstate commerce, state and local laws are pre-empted or placed beneath federal laws by the U.S. Constitution.
Modern trains can exceed12,000 feet in length. That’s a lot of blocked crossings. A 12,000 foot train running at 10 mph will take over 20 minutes to pass. Trains were much shorter when federal regulations were established. When US politics change, and they always change, railroads could be looking at new onerous rules to curb their inconsiderate behavior.
Why not “enact” a program to build separated grade-crossings. I’d suggest calling it the: Reduced Commute Time and Freedum-n-Democracy Defense Anti-Evildoer Job Creation Full Employment for the Children Act of 2020. (Just a suggestion…)
Move somewhere else!!!
While I agree that crossings near yards are the most impacted due to yard speeds, I have heard many a dispatcher and engineer argue on the radio on why his assigned track is blocked on yard entry, or why they are getting a red light to simply get into the yard, let alone their assigned space.
When I rode Metra in years passed, even we got blocked on some mornings because the NS was late or delayed coming up the IHB and into Proviso Yard. So we sat at Bellwood waiting for the EOT to pass into the yard and getting the switches to clear so we could continue.
On the Southwest Service on Metra from Joliet, freight interference was a daily thing. It took years and years for Metra to get operators to make better decisions on freight.
Many of these street crossings are near a railroad yard and the trains cannot exceed 10 mph or so no matter what else is done with the infrastructure around said crossings.
While the moving trains might be an annoyance, when one stops because of the crew going dead on hours our some other reason and ties up streets and roads for hours it is a big deal and as one poster mentioned when these railroads were built trains where not 12000 feet long. If the railroads don’t want congress to pass some restrictive and counterproductive laws (sometimes I think that is what they do best) then the railroads should address the problem.
And the new rules — which benefit only the people in a specific location, which was almost always settled after the railroad came — will simply cause the railroad to take itself and its business somewhere else.
I might also point out that in many cases the train is moving at 10 mph because the location has failed to provide protection so it can move faster. No whistle crossings? check. Speed limits on the scary train? check Refusal to build an elevated crossing? check. Failure to close informal paths? check. Failure to enforce no trespassing? check.
Not much sympathy there. I might add, too, that a 2 milelong train at 10 mph will take 12 minutes, not over 20. If it were allowed to move at, say, 30 — or half as fast as a semi on main street — it would only take 4 minutes.