Why so many delays at railroad crossings?
Many Shepherdstowners complain to me about the frequent occasions they have had to wait for long periods of time while freight trains stop at local railroad crossings.
“Why doesn’t the state (or the county, or the town) do something?” goes the question. The answer is, they can’t. Neither the state government, the county government nor the town government can prevent a railroad from stopping a train, and blocking a railroad crossing, for as long as it blooming well pleases.
Federal law makes the railroad entirely responsible for the crossing. A state, a county, a city (and for that matter a school district or a water/sewer district) can suggest, beg, plead, stomp its feet and even curse, but the decision is totally in the hands of the railroad whose tracks the road crosses.
The same federal law also applies to the maintenance of the crossing. No matter how poorly maintained a crossing is at a given point in time, the railroad owning those tracks is still in charge. State and local governments have their hands tied, when dealing with the railroads.
Many years ago, a person left a profanity-laden phone message (with no phone number) on my voicemail, complaining that I hadn’t done anything to fix the railroad crossing at Duffields. The very next day, a railroad crew was there fixing that crossing. I chuckled that the person who left that message probably thought I’d gotten the crossing fixed, even though I had nothing to do with it.
I speak frequently with the state legislative representatives of the two railroads that own tracks in Shepherdstown vicinity. I know that Shepherdstown Mayor Jim Auxer has spoken with representatives of the rail line that comes through the Corporation of Shepherdstown. But again, all we can do is ask.
And ask we have. We’ve asked for the trains to be broken, in cases where a crossing will be blocked for a considerable length of time. And we’ve asked for the schedules to be fine-tuned more, so there are fewer times that crossings must be blocked. The answer to both is always, “We’ll think about it.”
Some folks have suggested curtailing freight service. I doubt the railroads would give up that business to trucking, which would further clog our highways. And it would additionally exacerbate our already choked supply chain.
The two railroads near Shepherdstown are Norfolk Southern and CSX. Norfolk Southern (NS) is an amalgam of two older railroads, Southern Rail and the Norfolk and Western. NS is a north-south line that runs through Shepherdstown — it owns the two crossings in the Corporation of Shepherdstown and the one at Morgan’s Grove. CSX is an east-west line, resulting from a merger of the Baltimore and Ohio with the Chesapeake and Ohio. CSX runs from Harpers Ferry to Martinsburg, and owns the crossing at Duffields. The lines cross each other at the unincorporated, aptly named village of Shenandoah Junction.
I will continue to bug both railroads to do better. Mayor Auxer has told me he will too.
John Doyle is a delegate for the West Virginia District 67. He can be reached at johndoyle@wvhouse.gov.