The railroad can make an entire town mad in one day

W0QNX

W0QNX

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Pensacola, FL. USA
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Pensacola has a strange city shape to begin with. The swamps, rivers and Interstate 10 limit the roads and cause some traffic issues here in our slightly crowded Pensacola. Like many places the old business areas and schools are along the old main road, North-South Highway 29 and the newer homes are just across the railroad tracks starting a few yards to a half mile to the east. And like everywhere, most live on the other side of the tracks from where they work which is normally not much of a problem still just a 10 minute drive.

The railroad tracks split the town from the very north of the county to the very downtown. You want to upset just about all of the town in one day? Track crossing repair. Close 5 miles of east west crossings 100% closed as in torn out pavement and that will cause havoc for sure.

Yeah yeah they put out some notice but few listen to the local news and fewer read the newspaper (we have one??) but close 5 miles of east west crossing at once? Of course we know they closed it all at once because 2 trains a day will be shut down less days that way. You close crossings down east west and few know about it ahead of time people just clog the roads driving north and south looking for possible crossing roads.

All the north south major roads were backed up 40 minutes to 3 hours. My Daughters first 3 appointments didn't show up at all. Grandson was an hour late for work. Granddaughter 2 hours late to school. I didn't leave for my daily ride until 8:30 or so and I couldn't ride one half mile west and north at that time so I went east. Lots of reports of 2 to 3 hours spent in traffic jams.

I can only imagine how bad emergency travel must have been. It was such a mess and it continues today with only 3 crossings reopened overnight.

Rant over but the railroad rules from 100 years ago need review for sure. Kingsfield to Olive 100% closed yesterday all at the same time. Construction going on at the others slowed down the crossings.

csxsouth.jpg
 
Lack of planning on our part does not mean an emergency on their part. They announced it and as you say few pay attention to the news. Maybe they should have put it on Facebook.

Think about this. We ride paved roads essentially for very little cost. The city, state, and feds build and maintain them. Eminent domain acquires the right of ways if the landowner didn't want a road across his property. Yes we pay taxes to these entities but the cost per mile per year for private use vehicles is nearly incalculable in relation to our use. Buy a license plate and pay the road use gas tax at the pump and we are off and gone. Railroads have to pay taxes on the right of way, maintain the track infrastructure, the physical right of ways, the signaling and lighting, pay for and implement positive train control all the while federal transportation policy for a century has favored trucking over rail. So a rail crossing has maintenance every few years for a few hours or a few days and it's the end of the life as we know it?
 
drrod said:
Surprised they were allowed to do that given how it impacted access for emergency vehicles.
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Likely because closings are [supposedly] coordinated with state and local agencies and first responders know the alternative routes. Helps to have dispatchers in real time. My city has two class 1 rail lines running 40 trains a day, three regional lines, a river running through it, one dedicated rail bridge and a million residents. Who knows how many surface road and urban artery crossings. If you don’t know your way around town, you probably could be inconvenienced at times. Two of my family members are first responders.
 
In our small town, where two major rail lines cross, we have trains going through and blocking traffic all the time. Sometimes they stop for 10 or 15 minutes, blocking streets.

When it comes to road/track crossings though - MOST of the time railway was there first, and the town built multiple road crossings after the fact.

When it came time to restore/revamp many of these crossings due to age or traffic increase, the railroads said no thank you, we'll not be paying for all of that... .and after many court battles, they were correct. The city actually closed off several of the crossings and struck a deal with the railroads to share the costs of maintaining the others.

So, while it is a pain in the neck, sometimes the railroads are justified... and no - I do not work for a railroad, and yes, it irritates the heck out of me too!

Odie1
 
dduelin said:
Likely because closings are [supposedly] coordinated with state and local agencies and first responders know the alternative routes. Helps to have dispatchers in real time. My city has two class 1 rail lines running 40 trains a day, three regional lines, a river running through it, one dedicated rail bridge and a million residents. Who knows how many surface road and urban artery crossings. If you don’t know your way around town, you probably could be inconvenienced at times. Two of my family members are first responders.
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This is all well and good if there are viable alternative routes. In the town where I had my practice, there was a rail line that essentially divided the town in half. There were 3 crossings (small town of 10,000 people - a long train could cover all 3 at once). If those 3 were blocked, the next closest one was a 10+ minute detour. If a train blocked all 3, at the same time, for more than a few minutes, the rail company got a very large fine so it did not happen very often. Trains seemed to be very cognizant of it when shuffling cars, to the point of uncoupling and clearing the crossing for several minutes, and then recoupling and continue with the shuffling. And yes, I was very aware of any and all alternatives since I was impacted by the trains on a daily basis.
 
I'm guessing the decided to do all the repairs at once, with only one shutdown of the rail line. Repairing each crossing individually would require multiple shutdowns of that rail line. Somebody did the math on that and thought, "pull the bandaid off in one go"...
 
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