Trapped by trains: Blocked railroad crossings impact Skamania County community
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- Опубликовано: 31 окт 2024
- A small community on the outskirts of Stevenson, WA is begging for solutions to a problem that has potentially life-threatening consequences.
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Railroads can not legally block a crossing for more than 20 minutes. If they are blocking for longer without a legitimate reason (i.e. breakdown, derailment, etc.), the railroad can be sued for violating federal law.
Congress has failed to address this problem; local law enforcement is powerless.
My dad was a retired Conrail engineer. He told me years ago that they were not permitted to block a crossing for more than 15 minutes.
Retired Conrail engineer? Are you sure he's really your dad? Railroad moms don't stay lonely, trust me. LOL
Simple -- but hard to do solution, that is happening everywhere: STOP MAKING THE TRAINS SO DAMN LONG. !!
Call Warren Buffett. He owns BNSF (Berkshire Hathaway)
Isn't precision scheduled railroading great?!
I used to work for a cleaning company that served a property there. I and my team one day were trapped by one of those trains without any way to get home for hours. I quit soon after. I can't imagine living there.
It should be illegal to block a rail crossing.
Sadly, I think the overpass is the best option, despite the funding needed. Sad fact in today's reality is trains are long and they're just going to get longer. Railroads make money based on how efficiently and effectively they can move their goods so the longer the train, the more profitable it is. This is also the problem with extending the sidings. It would only be a temporary solution to the existing problem. Though necessary, I think railroad crossings should be a last resort. The more you can separate cars and trains, the better. I think the best solution is to investigate the possibility of either installing an overpass or finding some other means of connecting that community without interference from the railroad.
Why is this such a problem to fix. From what I see the town has two crossings, Let the railroad block one or the other but not both at the same time. Whichever direction the train is coming from have it stop short and only block one route.
This is in a rural area. Rework the rail lines to move the intersection so as to prevent stopped trains from blocking these roadways. The onus is on the company to ensure they are not unreasonably obstructing emergency vehicles.
rework not a viable option
Bet that rail line was there LONG before those houses were....
all they need to do is to extend the double siding rail. its a single track and goes into 2 tracks so one has to stop to allow the other to pass. move that double track or make it longer so it doesn't have to stop at that road crossing.
One might think that: a train that is not moving is wasting money and therefore, it would be in the best interest of all of the railroads to come up with a way to not have a train sitting (idling) for any length of time.
But that's just me.
Train crews can work up to 12 hours before being relieved They will work the crew right up to their 12 hours Plus when there is no crews available
thomasklimchuk441,
While this is true, the fact remains that the company is paying the crew to do nothing except sit in one place and burn fuel.
This will happen from time to time, even under the best of conditions. But to have it happen so often that it becomes an issue with an entire community means that something is wrong, somewhere.
Rebuild the passing track for longer sidings
RR needs to build an overpass or underpass at their expense. Kind of simple solution.
The were there long before those houses....
What the railroad can do is double track. It will reduce the need to wait for a train to pass.
Yeah right! All our 'infrastructure funds' went to Ukraine to be laundered back into the 'Big Guy's' pockets
Railroad was there decades before those houses...
For a minor expense each stopped train could split at one or both crossings to keep roads open at the crossings. A bit of labor and time devoted to such a task would solve the problem overnight.
That would involve consideration 😐
Minor expense?? You clearly don't know anything about trains.
@@ffjsb Clearly you believe Warren Buffett, owner of BNSF, is near poverty from owning BNSF.
abolish stopped trains make it illegal to block road crossings...!
No stopping on RR crossings that includes trains, keep moving!
So she waited all day to call 911??? Maybe next time call when you should...
Tunnel.
Go get your shovel and pick. We'll wait.
@@ffjsb Bring a comfy chair. My give-a-damn is already busted.
Beautiful River made terrible by the rails. Such limited access for hundreds of miles
Who was there first, or just move.
That’s no place to be hyperventilating on your yoga mat for all to see.
I get that a train needs to stop to let another through, but that shouldn’t take 2 hours. Why are they sitting there for so long? Get moving.
The same problem with MAX
The foundations for Portlands
Own IRON CURTAIN
Maybe move closer to the hospital? Were the train tracks there when you bought your house lady?
Are all these people that numb that they can not figure out that its a easy fix ..
i am pretty sure they know how to stop & disconnect but what do i know I mean maybe they have some really incompetent people that can only go and stop running these trains.
Of course, when you split a train, all of the cars brakes have to be rechecked before the train can legally move again. Big assed train?, expect minimum of 1/2 to full hour to resume moving. Not an option.
Sue the county and the railroad
Should have known better when buying a house near the tracks. Just like those who buy a house right next to the tracks complain because it’s noisy, well of course.
It is not reasonable to expect those not familiar with railroad operations to anticipate prolonged blockages. You see a railroad crossing, you can expect to be blocked by moving trains, not parked trains. This is entirely avoidable by the railroad. All they need to do is have an employee uncouple the car blocking the crossing so the engineer can pull ahead one or two car lengths and clear the crossing if the dispatcher anticipates a lengthy stop. This used to be SOP for railroads. However, railroad managements have been taken over by Wall Street Greed, and now the only thing that matters is maximizing profit at all costs. Quality of service to the customers, employee welfare, and community safety only matter to the extent that the Federal Government dictates. And with many - thankfully not all - politicians increasingly beholden directly or indirectly to big money supporters, it is difficult to get legislation passed to protect ordinary citizens.
@@evanstauffer4470 Sucks to be ignorant....
@@evanstauffer4470 It sounds like you, yourself, are not familiar with railroad operations. Your proposed solution would lead to the crossing getting blocked even longer. There is no such thing as just uncouple and pull forward. The conductor must walk thousands of feet to set the required number of handbrakes to keep the train from rolling. This itself would block the crossing an hour. When they uncouple the back portion of the train to pull forward, all of those cars lose the air pressure in their brake line (hence setting the handbrakes). Once the line ahead was clear, they'd have to reverse (which requires special forms/permission from the dispatcher) to recouple. Once that is done, the conductor has to walk thousands of feet all over again to release the handbrakes. THEN they can reconnect the brake line to charge the air. You have just taken a stop and go process and turned it into a nightmare that lasts three hours instead of one. It did not "used to be SOP" as you say; it *still is* SOP, however it only applies to trains that are getting tied down for extended periods of time and would have a crew change.
This news segment reeks of ignorance, lack of research and deception. One train was parked while they filmed the entire interview and it wasn't even blocking the second crossing. Seems to me BNSF is not blocking the road closer to the signal unless it absolutely has to.
I wish that lady well with her health concerns. The railroad was there long before she was. Perhaps it's time to move...
I know this will probably be unpopular, but My first question is; Were the Railroad crossings there when You moved in there? You would think they should have taken that into consideration before they moved in there. It sounds like poor planning on the county or the people who moved there.
I agree with you in part. They did say that the trains keep getting longer and longer. So what may have been a short delay is now an hour. But anyone who moves there now would be there own bad planning.
Metolius, Oregon has trains parked blocking crossings regularly. I don't know why. I think not enough complaints, so they do whatever they want. This is single track where they're parked, by the way.