I was recently sitting at a railroad crossing where a massive train was going by for-- I kid you not-- 21 minutes. After the train passed, the traffic going the opposite direction as me was lbacked up for a good 2 miles. But as I was sitting there watching the freight cars rumble by, I was wondering what would happen if an ambulance or other emergency vehicle had to get through.
Is there some sort of law, whether state or federal, that limits the length of trains?
If not, there should be, dammit! That’s 21 minutes of my life I want back!
I was curious about this same question. I remember counting close to 200 cars on a train when I was a child. Recently, I have counted 100 to 110. I found information on BNSF web site. I did a search on track capacity and it looks as if the maximum car capacity for a lot of facilities is 110 cars.
There’s a train line here that’s regularly blocks a main traffic artery at rush hour. The train doesn’t actually go anywhere. They’re just moving cars to and from different tracks somewhere near the port. They do get fined if they block traffic too long, but they don’t really care since the railroads have plenty of money.
Most states have laws about the time a train is allowed to block an intersection. Here is Iowa’s:
"Iowa Code Section 327G.32 relates to blocked public crossings. It states that a railroad corporation or its employees shall not operate a train in such a manner as to prevent vehicular use of a highway, street or alley for a more than 10 minutes except in any of the following circumstances:
!) when necessary to comply with signals affecting the safety of the movement of the trains;
when necessary to avoid striking an object or person on the track;
when the train is disabled; or
when necessary to comply with governmental safety regulations, including but not limited to speed ordinances and speed regulations.
Do local and county authorities have any jurisdiction over railroads blocking public crossings?
Section 327G.32 makes it illegal for a railroad to block vehicular traffic more than of 10 minutes, except for the reason listed in the previous question. City and county law enforcement officers can issue tickets to railroads that violate Iowa Code Section 327G.32."
Typically, the longest trains in the US are unit trains of about 110 cars in length. However, there are many pinch points in the US now, due to some overloaded tracks (too many tons/day), poor maintenance, and congestion. So some unit trains are now reduced to 80 or so cars in the West.
The situation East of the Mississippi is much better.
Trains usually run on schedules. Emergency vehicles, and indeed any local residents, will know what time to expect that very long freight train, how long it takes to pass, where the underpasses are, and/or how far “back” to drive in order to get around it.
The setup is checked before the train leaves on its route. This includes how many cars, how many loaded cars, and the positioning of the locomotives along the route (whether they are all in front, have some in the middle, or have some at the end). The engineer participates in the decision, along with the track controllers, but it’s really a somewhat fixed formula, so to speak.
Here the local law is 25 minutes max for a train to block a crossing. After that, if a cop witnessed the violation, the fine is $50. And the train can only get that fine once per violation. Last year the City went on a rampage about it, ticketed trains whenever thay could for a week, made about $150 per day. I’d guess the idling locomotives burn fuel faster than the city collected money, so CSX didn’t really care. Besides, it takes a lot of time to disconnect a train, then reconnect it, then wait for the air to come up to pressure so the brakes release.
Regarding schedules, CSX claimed that freight trains are not finitely scheduled, but that the computers controll the signals and flow of traffic, based on the overall system load. Trains don’t get loaded and unloaded exactly on schedules at all the drop points so the computers route them as they get free to travel some more.
The human controller for the Eastern USA is in Jacksonville, Florida and mainly monitors the computer system, not the actual trains.
