Federal Court Overrules Kentucky Blocked Crossing Law

State laws designed to discourage railroads from blocking grade crossings that have the effect of regulating railroad operations are impermissible under federal law, a judge has ruled.

The case involved a Kentucky law that was challenged by the Association of American Railroads.

A federal court in rendering the ruling in favor of AAR acknowledged that states have historically had a role in regulating local highways.

But the Kentucky law has the effect of regulating railroads and that is the province of federal law, the court ruled.

“ . . . the state does not have the authority to regulate highway safety to the extent that its laws require the railroad to effect such substantial changes,” the ruling said.

At issue was a case that began with police in Pulaski and McCreary counties issuing citations to Norfolk Southern under a state law that stated trains cannot block roadways for more than five minutes.

The Pulaski citations were issued for blocking Richardson Lane near a depot in Burnside.

Most of the citations said trains were stopped for between 15 to 20 minutes.

NS contended in court that five minutes is not long enough to perform all of the safety checks needed following a crew change.

An NS manager said that those checks can take 15 to 20 minutes if everything goes well.

Although NS entered pleas of guilty to 11 misdemeanor citations, the AAR filed a lawsuit on the railroad’s behalf in a federal court against Pulaski County Attorney Martin Hatfield and Pulaski Sheriff Greg Speck in their official capacities, as well as the Sheriff and County Attorney for McCreary County.

After the court ruled against him, Hatfield issued a statement saying that although he was disappointed in the ruling, local authorities would obey it as they review their options for an appeal.

He said the state court cases should not be affected “until we have either exhausted our appeals, or made the decision not to appeal.”

FRA Launches Webpage to Report Blocked Crossings

The Federal Railroad Administration created a webpage that can be used by the public and law enforcement to report blocked highway-rail grade crossings.

The page collects such information as date, time, location and duration.

In a news release the FRA said it will use the information collected will to gain a more complete picture of where, when and for how long such obstructions occur at the nation’s approximately 130,000 public grade crossings.

The agency said it will share that information with railroads and government officials and use it to help create local solutions to blocked crossing issues.

Filling out the form online should take an average of three minutes the FRA said.

The page can be found at www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings

Trains Tying Up Toledo Crossings for Long Periods

Some Toledo motorists are growing impatient over what they term long delays due to grade crossings being blocked by longer trains.

The Blade newspaper of Toledo noted that blocked crossings are not new in East Toledo, but with Norfolk Southern having adopted the precision scheduled railroading operating model the time that crossings are blocked has lengthened as the trains have become longer.

“It wasn’t really that bad until they started doing something different,” resident Tom Salona told the Blade.

Another resident, Chris McCrory, said delays have stretched to a half hour and even an hour.

Nick Fuzinski said the problems started getting bad last spring. “It used to be just five minutes. Then they’d be on their way,” he said.

Toledo City Councilman Peter Ujvagi, whose district includes East Toledo, said he has received numerous complaints about long blocked grade crossings.

“People have complained, because for a very long time that one single [track] line was not used much at all,” he said. “But now we have these extended blockages, and you can’t get around them.”

He was referring to the fact that CSX also has a rail line a few blocks from the NS track in question.

The Blade said the NS trains in question are headed in and out of Evans Yards, formerly known as Homestead Yard, in Oregon.

In the past, NS ran shorter trains and departing trains could conduct an air test without blocking any streets.

In particular, the Blade reported, the train that is blocking crossing the most originates in Bellevue and has a few blocks of cars for Evans Yard and the Air Line Yard in Central Toledo.

That train also interchanges traffic to the Ann Arbor Railroad in North Toledo.

The Blade said that this train typically arrives at Evans Yard in the middle of the morning to drop off cars and then picks up cars bound for Air Line Yard.

Most of the cars NS interchanges to the Ann Arbor Railroad are auto racks and that results in consists that are more than a mile long.

That is long enough to block most, if not all, crossings between Burger and York streets as the crew does switching and performs an air break test before departing for Air Line Yard.

To reach Air Line, the train must get onto the NS Chicago Line near East Broadway and Oakdale Avenue.

If it has to wait for traffic before getting onto the Chicago Line that means more time blocking crossings.

What has changed is that the auto racks are no longer handled in separate trains as they were in the past.

Likewise, NS used to run a train from Bellevue with just cars bound for Evans Yard.

A yard crew at Evans would then build another train with cars bound for Air Line Yard.

But now all of those movements have been consolidated into a single train.

Yet another complication can occur if an NS train is blocking a diamond with CSX at Ironville Junction.

That has a ripple effect with CSX trains blocking crossings in North and East Toledo as it waits it turn to proceed across the diamonds.

Ujvagi said he might write a letter to Norfolk Southern and perhaps one to U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur to see what help she might be able to offer.

Indiana High Court Favors NS in Grade Crossing Case

An Indiana court has ruled in favor of Norfolk Southern and against a county that sought to fine the railroad for blocking grade crossings of public streets.

The Indiana Supreme Court in a unanimous ruling  invalidated efforts under a state law to fine railroads that block crossings of public streets for more than 10 minutes.

In its ruling, the court said the state law, which had been adopted in 1972, was a direct regulation of railroads that is preempted by the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act.

NS was cited by Allen County officials 23 times between December 2014 and December 2015.

Although judges in county courts had ruled in favor of the railroad in those cases, the state appealed to the Indiana high court.

The court said the state might be able to obtain recourse for blocked crossings through the Surface Transportation Board’s Rail Customer and Public Assistance Program.

Bill Introduced in Indiana Senate Would Fine Railroads for Excessive Grade Crossing Blocking

A bill has been introduced in the Indiana Senate that would fine railroads for excessive blocking of highway grade crossings.

Senate Bill 27 would impose civil penalties on railroads for obstructions of grade crossings that exceed 10 minutes with fines imposed on a sliding scale tied to how long the crossing was blocked.

The bill also “provides that the civil penalties are in addition to any judgments for infractions.”

The bi-partisan proposal was submitted by Sen. Dennis Kruse and Sen. Carlin Yoder, and co-authored by Sen. Brandt Hershman, Sen. Earline Rogers, and Sen. Frank Mrvan.

The bill provides for fines up to $500 for a blockage up to 20 minutes, fines up to $700 for a blockage up to 25 minutes, fines up to $900 for a blockage up to 30 minutes, and fines up to $1,000 for a blockage more than 30 minutes, plus an additional $500 for each five minute increment beyond that.

At the request of organized labor, the bill was revised so that the fines are levied against railroad companies and not crew members of the offending trains.

That change came after testimony from union member railroad workers. As originally written, the bill would have imposed fines on railroad crew members.