Stop That Train

Operation Lifesaver Alabama brings attention to railroad crossing safety in ...

Locomotive engineer Randy Burns had seen enough drivers try to beat the train, collide with trains and complain about the inability of trains to stop quickly he nearly gave up his career.

"When you race the train, even if it is a tie, you're still going to lose," Burns said.

"I've been involved in 14 collisions over the course of my career. Every one, I've not been able to do anything about them other than blast the horn and try to brake.

"What people don't understand is that a train doing 55 miles an hour will need more than a mile to stop completely."

To try to get the importance of railroad crossing safety to the public, Burns and Nancy Hudson, executive director of Operation Lifesaver Alabama, came to Marshall County on Thursday.

The pair handed out more than 200 leaflets and brochures outlining rail-crossing safety, including the most important, "Look, Listen and Live!" motto.

"We realized that there had been several near-misses in the area so we are here trying to help," Hudson said.

"When you live in a community where railroad tracks are a big part of the community, you get lulled into a false sense of security.

"When you cross the tracks every day and you don't see a train all the time, you quit looking for one. And when you quit looking, that is when you get in trouble."

Hudson said trains rarely run on a set schedule so vigilance by drivers at crossings is key.

Alabama ranks No. 7 in the country for the number of train/vehicle collisions and No. 10 in the country for the number of train collision fatalities.

"A lot of times, train/vehicle collisions are called in to authorities as a hit-and-run accident because the train doesn't stop at the scene, but comes to a complete stop up to a mile or more from the scene of the accident," Hudson said.

The amount of time it takes for a train to come to a full stop is the most surprising tidbit of information for drivers encountering Hudson and Burns.

"The first thing they always ask is why trains can't stop as quickly as a car," Burns said.

"A van will weigh, on average, 3,000 pounds. A train can weigh up to 3 million pounds.

"Stop and think for a minute how much it would take to stop that amount of weight. It won't happen as quickly as a car.

"That van will stop in about 200 feet. The train will take a mile or more to stop."

In other terms, a train can take a length of more than 18 football fields to stop. And if the engineer can see you, it is too late to stop the train, Burns said.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUNDUP: THE BLOG: STOP THAT TRAIN!

As part of discussions and deliberations concerning balancing the FY12 budget, which is 1.2 million dollars less than the previous fiscal year’s budget, the Rio Metro Regional Transit District Board voted to eliminate weekend service on the New Mexico Rail Runner Express. The board had been considering two weekday schedule options to address the budget reduction, but in a six-to-five vote earlier today, board members instead took action to eliminate weekend service to balance the Fiscal Year 2012 Federal budget. “This was originally envisioned as a commuter service, and that’s the piece we want to maintain without affecting anybody”, said Steve Shaw, Chairman of the Rio Metro Board. “While we recognize the weekend service from a tourism and convenience point of view, we think it’s more important to support the initial mission of the train without affecting the people who use it to get to and from work.” When service began to Santa Fe in 2008, a portion of that service was paid for with CMAQ funds – Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Funds - which can only be used for a three-year period to support operations based on federal regulations. That three-year clock runs out in FY12, and has resulted in a 1.2 million dollar budget reduction. To date, there has been no alternative funding source identified to make up the difference.