We had an interesting confrontation 15-20 years ago, and a more interesting solution. Seems some mothers of local elected officials became concerned that these big nasty trains going through town at 45 mph were presenting a major safety issue to motorists. So the council enacted a 15 mph limit from city line to city line, about 6 miles. Needless to say, it didn't take very long for folks to start screaming about how long these "nasty" 100-125 car freights were taking to clear a crossing. You guessed it, the limit was back to 45 two weeks later at the next council meeting....nuff said. :tb-wacky:
I think the governing law about this is "right of easement". Even if the road came after the railroad, it is used for access to other private land. Therefore it is sort of "grandfathered" in as a matter of public access. Another example. In the state of Hawaii, ALL beaches are public domain up to 3ft from high tide. A hotel or property cannot tell you that they have a private beach,since that legally doesn't exist. In line with this, no private property owner may deny anyone access to a beach. If a path does not already exist, they must provide one IIRC. A hotel or property may own the land up to that high tide line and they can also maintain a public beach, in fact it is beneficial to their business to do just that. CT
The same is true in California. Every single mile of beach is public property. It makes for some angry rich people. And yeah, it's an easement thing. The railroad would have no right to charge for the crossing. Still, the correct answer here is that the city should work with the railroads to build the over pass and mitigate the problem. This fine solution isn't going to do anything but irritate the crews and give the BNSF lawyers some extra work. Also, the issue in Colorado with a Renn Faire I believe illustrates the opposite end of the spectrum. As for Berwyn, Ah Berwyn. In 2006 when I took the Southwest Chief back to LA, we were delayed 2-3hours in the station and then slow orders to berwyn, cause some old lady tried to beat the train on east Av. Eh, At least Hobby City was nice.
You're 100% right. Fining the crew for something they may or may not be able to control doesn't solve anything. Nobody goes out of their way to block a crossing...most crews will do their best not to but sometimes there's just no helping it. You can't always predict everything that might happen when you start through a town. Also, it doesn't matter if a police officer orders me to back up, go by a red, cut a crossing etc., if I can't...I can't. You don't just put it in reverse and back up a mile of train without protecting the rear or start chopping it in pieces without securing it. All these things take a while and by the time you get done, you might have left anyway. There has to be better solutions than either the carriers or the municipalities are coming up with...each one trying to order the crews louder than the other.
I fully agree! When I think about the need for a train to break up it not because it's going to sit for 5-10 minutes due to a red, it's becuase it's going to sit there for a long period with no easy access around it. For small towns the crossing might be the only crossing so maybe the RR can look to stop the train in a different spot. For large cities it's more of how many crossings are being blocked at the same time and what they are. That's when the City and RR need to work together to create stretchs of track that can accomidate a stopped train; like something called a bridge. That is what was done in DENVER along US-85. Sometimes it's a RR Bridge the road goes under and somethings its an overpass the RR goes under. Now the big coal trains can come into town an stop at a red without causing massive traffic and safty issues. Heck, I've seen both aBNSF NB and SB sitting side by side in these zones all day on Sunday and Holidays now and nobody cares because they are not blocking any crossings. The City is now tring to work with UP to see if we can get their mainline completely out of town so only locals would actually enter into town. The abondon track they hope to us for new commuter services. If they can cut the deal I think it will be a WIN-WIN but I'm sure their are a ton of details that will take lots of time to work though. In the mean time UP also hase some nice long zones to sit trains in too. :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up: :thumbs_up:
The problem around here, I mentioned only one case above (Photo Here), is development of former rural areas. The developers come in and put subdivisions and shopping centers on large tracts of land that are on the other side of the highway from the railroad. They demand access and get a crossing put in. In one case, US highway 59 was built as an underpass below a farm road and the old ATSF tracks. All the traffic went below the railroad. Now both sides of the highway are developed into huge shopping centers with one new crossing is installed and they are working on another one. This Google image shows the area. The south side is no longer woods and BNSF is installing a new crossing across from where the ramps come up from the freeway. Now if a train is forced to stop, everyone will start screaming.
Herein lies the problem. People today refuse to accept any responsibility for their (ignorant) choices. The RR was there long before they moved in. Long before any celebration/event. Yet it's twisted to the RR being at total fault. (How dare they inconvenience the public?) And, the cost to us in dollars? Yikes. Nobody seems aware of the expense. It's just- The RR needs to build this, move that. As if it's free. Every penny is passed on to the citizens. Including those who do not live there. Increased costs of goods, and increased taxes. :thumbs_down: Boxcab E50
