Yeah you read it right. Story below.
Thoughts?
Frustrations continue with stopped trains in Elkhart County
Thursday morning update: If a train blocks a crossing for too long in Elkhart County, it faces a $500 ticket. In a release issued today, the Elkhart County Sheriff's Department said it handed out 18 tickets yesterday for a stopped train. One for every 10 minutes the train wasn't moving.
Here is the full release:
After receiving several complaints of blocked railroad crossings that caused delays for motorists in the Dunlap area, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department began communicating with officials from the Norfolk Southern Railroad Company last week. After discussions to have trains removed from the crossings in accordance with Indiana statutes went unheeded by the Norfolk Southern, Sheriff’s Deputies began enforcement efforts yesterday that resulted in eighteen citations being issued to the railroad company.
Beginning at 1:32pm yesterday, the Sheriff’s Department received a complaint from a citizen that the railroad crossing at US 33 and Sunnyside was blocked. At approximately 1:37pm, Norfolk Southern reported that the train was stopped as the “train crew ran out of time”. It was reported that it would take at least 2-3 hours for a new crew to arrive and clear the crossing. At 2:00pm, Sheriff’s Deputies were on-scene and began taking enforcement actions against the railroad company. This resulted in eighteen citations for blocking the crossing, which was calculated per statute for every ten minutes that the train blocked the crossing. At approximately 5:05pm, a new crew arrived and cleared the crossing.
According to Indiana statute 8-6-7.5-1, “It shall be unlawful for a railroad corporation to permit any train, railroad car or engine to obstruct public travel at a railroad-highway grade crossing for a period in excess of (10) minutes, except where such train, railroad car or engine cannot be moved by reason of circumstances over which the railroad corporation has no control.”
According to Indiana statute 8-6-7.5-3, “A railroad corporation, conductor, or engineer who violates this chapter commits a Class C infraction. However, no conductor or engineer acting under the rules or orders of the railroad corporation or its supervisory personnel may be prosecuted for such a violation.
As the decision to stop the train was taken under the rules and orders of the railroad corporation, the citations will be delivered to Norfolk Southern Railroad’s local office in Elkhart. The penalty for violating this statute is a Class C infraction, which finable up to $500.00 for each violation.
It should be noted that prior to enforcement actions being taken, the Sheriff’s Department has been in communication with Norfolk Southern Railroad’s Office of Government Affairs to make them aware of the community’s concerns and that enforcement action would be taken if the trains continued to block railroad crossings.
Elkhart County Sheriff’s Deputies will continue to monitor this situation and will take additional enforcement actions as needed.
Original story posted Wednesday: It happened again Wednesday night.
Trains blocking the crossings in Elkhart County.
We told you Tuesday night how people in Dunlap launched a social media page to get the trains moving.
Now, the sheriff's department is issuing tickets if a train is stopped for more than 10 minutes.
Each ticket costs $500.
Who gets the ticket depends on the situation.
If the engineer keeps the train stopped, that person will get the ticket.
If the company is responsible for the stopped train it will get the ticket.
Either way, Norfolk Southern says it's working to resolve this issue.
Kathie McNeal is upset about the stopped trains and says, "I can see maybe one intersection but then the next one. Why are you blocking them all? It's ridiculous."
A stopped train was blocking Sunnyside Avenue Wednesday for about an hour and a half.
The Elkhart County Sheriff's Department says it wanted to give Norfolk Southern time to fix the problem but they didn't see an improvement so now they're doing something about it.
Trains are allowed to block a crossing for up to ten minutes.
After that, deputies may give out a $500 ticket for every ten minutes the train is still stopped.
David Slovinski lives in Dunlap and says, "I think that's a benefit. I think that's a start in the right direction and I think the more they put pressure on them I think the more results we'll get."
Norfolk Southern says it's in the business of moving trains so it's frustrated with the stopped trains too.
David Pidgeon is a spokesman and he says since this spring there has been a major spike in railroad transportation.
The company has train loads not seen since before the recession.
He says, "We are in a very strong hiring period right now so we need to bring on more conductors and more crews."
He says a lot of those jobs will be coming to Elkhart County.
Norfolk Southern also plans to invest in developing the infrastructure through Elkhart County to increase capacity and improve fluidity of the trains.
He says safety is their number one priority which is part of the reason why the trains are stopping for so long.
Pidgeon says, "If there's a mechanical issue on a locomotive or a car that could cause the train to stop and make sure that mechanical issue is looked at."
Pidgeon says another reason for the stopped trains is because of shift changes.
Each crew can only work so many hours before they have to stop.
The railroad company says it will be months before all of its solutions are in place but the hope is that all of it will help keep trains moving.
Thoughts?