Residents Seek Solution to Train Crossing Delays

Locomotives united the east and west. The Panhandle Nebraska area knows it well as local history. But some Cheyenne County residents are also familiar with long trains that can delay transit from one point to another.

The dilemma, sometimes stress, is when a blocked crossing keeps residents from the rest of the community, or worse yet, when the blocked crossing keeps first responders from completing a call.

"We are landlocked," Kim Phillips said recently.

Phillips and Jim Pelster recently addressed the Cheyenne County commissioners regarding the dilemma.

"It really picked up after the derailment," she told the commissioners.

At the time, commissioner Darrell Johnson admitted the Phililps and their neighbors are landlocked when the crossing is blocked. Phillips shared an incident when her mother injured her head about two years ago. She said first responders were delayed because of the train. The outcome would have been worse if her brother had not been at the scene.

She and her husband John own a home on the north side of the tracks west of Sidney on County Road 109. They moved there in 2002. At the time, there wasn't even cross arms, they said. Now, they are dependent on luck no trains are crossing when they need to get into town, or that the train is short enough to not slow down a resident's journey. The Phillips see it as a train management issue; plan on trains stopping between crossings would be the quick solution.

"There's no way they can't stop them," John Phillips said. "They're choosing not to."

He says the relationship with the railroad was positive during the five five years.

Nebraska State Statute 17-225 states it is unlawful "for any railroad company or for any of its officers, agents, or employees to obstruct with car or cars, with engine or engines, or with any other rolling stock, for more than 10 minutes at a time, any public highway, street, or alley in any unincorporated village in the state of Nebraska." Nebraska Revised Statute 74-1332 says the Department of Transportation has jurisdiction on all crossings outside of incorporated villages, towns, and cities,

However, in NRS 74-1337, the law states that "whenever railroad tracks cross a public highway at grade, outside of incorporated cities and villages, the owner of the railroad tracks and the county board of the county in which such crossing is located may agree upon any change, alteration, or construction of any crossing as will promote the public convenience or safety."

Monday, Kristen South, Union Pacific Railroad Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Media Relations, responded to concerns of the crossing.

"Due to increased seasonal volume, some longer mainline trains were being held to allow high-priority trains to pass," South said. "A special alert is in place so dispatchers at the Harriman Dispatching Center are aware that longer trains cannot wait in this area."

She said that if residents continue to experience a blocked crossing, they are encouraged to call the Union Pacific's 24/7 Response Center at 1-888-877-7267.