There's a running joke at work about showing up late because of the train in Chico. It does block 101 everyday about 3pm. Last week Union Pacific turned the tables on me.
I was driving home from work and as I approached Chico I saw the lights flashing at the crossing. It's pretty unusual to see them working the crusher that late. I pulled up behind the 5 or 6 cars in lane and expected a 5 - 10 minute wait.
20 minutes goes by and the train has'nt moved an inch. 30 minutes and still nothing. I wait until 45 minutes goes by before I pull out my PDA and look up the number for Union Pacific. What the heck is going on?
My call was answered by a nice guy named Ted. He had trouble finding the track crossing 101. While he was searching, I asked him if there was a law about how long they could block a roadway. What if someone needed to get to the hospital or there was a fire? He assured me they would break the train in an emergency, but he did'nt how long they could legally block the road.
Ted finally found the track and told me there was a supervisor on his way and they would break the train in a few minutes. By this time I'd been sitting there for almost an hour, but the train did start to move. I thanked Ted for his help and waited for the road to open up.
20 minutes pass and the train still blocking the road. There's a line of cars as far as I can see in my mirror. I call UP back and this time spoke to a woman who was not as customer friendly as Ted. I asked why they did'nt break the train like I was told. She replied the train was in "emergency status" and could'nt move. She went on to say as long as they were in "emergency status" they could block the road as long as they wanted.
I'm sitting there watching the train move back and forth about 1/4 mile.
It's pretty clear this gal don't give a rat's ass about how long they block the road or how long we waited.
Finally, after an hour and a half, the train backs into the crusher and clears the road. They were able to move the whole time, but did'nt want to take the effort to break the train for 5 minutes to clear the traffic.
Thanks, Union Pacific. Great community relations skills.
At least now I know the answer to my question. Sort of... I found this on TXDOT's website:
The state's railroad anti-blocking statute (Section 471.007 of the Transportation Code imposed a penalty against a railway company if its train blocked a crossing for more than ten minutes) was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2001. A copy of the Texas Attorney General's opinion from June 2005 can be found online.
Because the federal courts have ruled that federal laws preempt the state's anti-blocking statute, TxDOT does not have any statutory or regulatory authority to compel a railroad train to unblock a crossing.
Because the federal courts have ruled that federal laws preempt the state's anti-blocking statute, TxDOT does not have any statutory or regulatory authority to compel a railroad train to unblock a crossing.
4 comments:
After a conductor reaches a certain time limit on work hours, his crew will abandon the train. I know this sounds crazy, but it happens. A couple of years ago, there was an abandonment in the newark area. The train closed all access to a certain neighborhood. The S.O was called and I went out there. At this point the train had been blocking access for an hour. I was notified by the railroad of the situation. They were waiting for a replacement crew.
There was a large unhappy mob by then waiting to cross.
I always wanted to go skinny-dipping with those chicks in that water tower...
There were some changes made in the late 80s or early 90s about how long they could block a crossing. If you'll recall back then it was absolutely CRAZY. An hour was nothing. There were several cases of people dying because an ambulance couldn't get to the scene or patient would expire in the ambulance while a detour was executed due to the train blocking a crossing and houses burning down because a fire truck couldnt get to the scene.
PS- my first 'fantasy' of my young life was daydreaming of skinny dipping with the girls in that water tower!
I used Google.
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