Community Chat

[Pearlee]

I am often held up by a train!  Really?  In 2017 - can't my city have made overpasses underpasses by now so that traffic isn't held up by trains?

Actually there are a couple of major streets on which I travel regularly with train tracks and I'm often held up waiting for the trains to pass. They are freight trains of course and seem to travel at about 5 mph (at least that's how it seems as I wait for them to pass) Grrrrrr.   

What always cracks me up are the signs  next to the tracks which read:  Do not stop on the tracks.   Well, d'uh!

[Goldengate8361]

@Pearlee I'm always amazed at the stats on the number of people that die by getting hit by a train every year. I wonder how one could NOT see a train! I think stopping for passing trains occurs everywhere.....

[sandraskates]

We are just getting a commuter train that runs on former freight train tracks. There are now periodic holdups and traffic backups when the gates come down for it to pass.

And I do see cars stopped on the tracks at times. Oh yes, they do.

[Gram W]

We have trains on a fairly regular schedule.   When it goes thru town all accesses to the hospital are blocked.  They finally built a firestation up close to the hospital and a convenient care center on the town side.  The train has a habit of coming around 5PM when traffic is ridiculous with people trying to go home from work.  Often I was lucky and got stuck on my side of the tracks when trying to get to work at 8AM.  The 50+ year story of money spend looking for solutions that always got shot down is ridiculous.  They finally built another bridge years ago but of course it did not go over the tracks.  The only route over the tracks is south of town and then you have to backtrack north of town to the hospital.  Thank goodness I live on the hospital side.   I rarely go to town for several reasons.  Traffic in a town with 2 colleges is no picnic.

[sunshine45]

trains no, not along my general routes.......light rail yes.

[Blingqueen023]

yes there are trains in maryland.  I see them all the time.  

[Desertdi]

Not since I left Chicago nearly 50 years ago....(‼)

[VaBelle35]

Yes.  I have lived here since 1993, so I know to plan for it so that I am not late for appointments.

About 10 years ago, they straightened out the curve that the train takes and that has helped tremendously.  The train had to slow down to a crawl to get around the curve.  So you would have this 100+ car train go by at 10 MPH and you could sit there for what seemed like an hour or you could turn around and drive around the city to get to where you needed to be.

In a town next to me, they have been building an overpass for what seems like 5 years.  I think it's finally completed.

This week, Norfolk Southern was doing something to the tracks and we had all kinds of detours and single lanes.  Luckily I am on vacation, so it didn't impact me too much.

But, it's part of our civil war history here, so we learn to live with it.

[Nataliesgramma]

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@Goldengate8361 wrote:

@Pearlee I'm always amazed at the stats on the number of people that die by getting hit by a train every year. I wonder how one could NOT see a train! I think stopping for passing trains occurs everywhere.....

Depending how fast a train is going....by the time you see it..it is too late....

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[candys mine]

 The signs are needed becsuse people don't obey the rules of the road.   People que up at a red light and  block the side street and the crosswalk so other cars can not turn.  They are not supposed to block the way.  They do the same thing at RR crossings. 

Common sense Isn't common.  P.S  is there a train schedule you can check so you can avoid the crossings around that time?