A resident who Action News Jax spoke with says this happens on a daily basis in this area.
He even says on some days first responders have had to turn around because of the delays.
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There was a rail yard just on the (then) western outskirts of Riverbank City of Action, and the tracks on the southern end were always jammed up with trains. Well, not always, only when I needed to cross them.
You'd be sitting there with a train at a dead stop blocking the crossing for 10 minutes and just about the time you're thinking about flipping a U-turn and driving 5 miles out of your way around the northern end of the yard, the train would start to move. You breathe a 'finally' sigh of relief.
The train backs up 50 feet and stops. Fuck. It pulls forward. Yay! It stops after 60 feet. Fuck. It backs up. Yay again. It stops. Fuck. After another 3-4 minutes of that bullshit, you do a U-turn, drive up 5 miles, cross the tracks and double back down. Twelve minutes later, as you drive past the crossing you were originally waiting at, you look over and see that damned train still hasn't moved.
It was so bad that the ammo plant quit giving employees a pass for being late because of that crossing. They told the folks that lived in Modesto "You know that route is fucked up. Either leave earlier, much earlier, or take the long way."
This crossing was probably busy for the last 75 years. There have been cases where the railroad was sued for long standing train s with large awards to the complainer. Just need a good lawyer.
ReplyDeleteDid it never occur to City Hall to put up a sign warning auto traffic that there were long delays on the street(s) passing through the switching yard?
ReplyDeleteThere was an intersection with a dual line near where I lived overseas. A few hundred feet down the line was a station where the locals stopped to pick up passengers. A train would come to the station and sit at a dead stop, but regs required the barriers to stay down until the train had passed through the intersection. Nowadays the trains run on a viaduct.
The Railroad does the same thing in Abilene Ks. It blocks K15 in down town for 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Local Police write them tickets but the RR just pays them. I learned when I was working there to go 2 miles east of town to cross,
ReplyDeleteI lived in San Marco for several years in the 70s & again in the 90s. Traffic can get backed up for a while where the tracks cross Atlantic Blvd., maybe a mile before crossing the St. John's River downtown. The tracks cross many a side street including Hendricks Av. & San Marco Blvd. Baptist Hospital sits in the crotch of the tracks, I-95 & the river. Seen many emergency vehicles delayed through the years.
ReplyDeleteNot letting me post through my Google account, so for what it's worth I identify as Sheik Yer'booti.
Guess they never heard of an overpass.
ReplyDeleteJacksonville City Councilwoman Leanna Cumber, was heard telling residents to pound sand....
ReplyDeleteYep, San Marco crossing was a problem when I was stationed there in the 70s... Nothing new...
ReplyDeleteTexas has a law, which when passed caused breaking of trains at crossings. Part the train, no traffic jams.
ReplyDeleteA small town near where I live was a simple farming community that suddenly started growing. Initially, the trains would stop and the crews would stock up at a convenience store near the tracks. As the town grew, the crews didn't change their habits. People were getting tired of the delays. One day around 40 years ago, the train blocked an ambulance long enough for the police to arrive. When the office told the engineer to break the train. The engineer responded "I can't break the train until I know where all my people are." The third time the engineer was told to break the train and he repeated his mantra, the officer arrested him for public endangerment and handed him off to another officer who put him in a squad car and left. The other engineer on site was told to break the train or he was next. He quickly got on the radio and broke the train. Word through the grapevine was that it cost the railroad over $10,000 to get him out of jail and the railroad was warned that it better not happen again. Trains never stopped there again and the railroad recently started installing bridges in the area to alleviate delays caused by the trains.
ReplyDelete"She adds the city acquired a Consolidated Rail Infrastructure Safety Improvement Grant or CRISI Grant last year for 35 million dollars"
ReplyDeleteShe hopes that by the time all the payoffs and kickbacks are paid out they will have enough money left to install a sign warning of delays.
Madill, Oklahoma is the worst. (Damn Okies). BNSF blocks north and southbound traffic every single damn day. I need to add one hour to my daily commute of 15 miles. BS!
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