oklaclarinet
5/4/2007, 04:42 PM
Today I had to drive a morning and afternoon school bus route. Normally, each route takes about 25 minutes, meaning I should have spent about 50 minutes on a bus today. However, I spent an additional 40 minutes today alone waiting for trains to cross.
As I was finishing the morning route, I got caught by train, but it was moving at the time. However, it decided to come to a stop, blocking two out of three crossings, including the one I was at. Now, I couldn't exactly turn around or backup, because I was in a bus! I called the school, and eventually the train pulled forward to clear our crossings. However, they only cleared the second, leaving the last car of the train right in front of me on the tracks. Eventually, the police showed up to block the intersection behind me so I could back up and go to another track. So I had spent 25 minutes waiting for a train to clear, and hadn't even cleared at that point.
Then this afternoon, I got caught again, and I waited 15 minutes while the train moved back and forth before it finally cleared.
When I got home, I decided to check to see if any of this was illegal. Apparently not, because the federal government only has a "suggested" time of five minutes, and any state laws that have been passed to make this time more binding have been shot down by the courts, because they claim only the federal government can regulate railroads.
What is frustrating is that this happens often where I teach. A couple of months ago, on a day I was gone, there was an incident where all four possible crossings (the three in town and the one on the edge) were blocked for over an hour, right as school was letting out. Now, it just seems plain irresponsible for the railroad, knowing that the times before and after school are the only times traffic is extremely heavy crossing the tracks, to choose these times to move trains, especially when it involves blocking the track for a significant amount of time.
All that being said, any suggestions on what can be done about this?
As I was finishing the morning route, I got caught by train, but it was moving at the time. However, it decided to come to a stop, blocking two out of three crossings, including the one I was at. Now, I couldn't exactly turn around or backup, because I was in a bus! I called the school, and eventually the train pulled forward to clear our crossings. However, they only cleared the second, leaving the last car of the train right in front of me on the tracks. Eventually, the police showed up to block the intersection behind me so I could back up and go to another track. So I had spent 25 minutes waiting for a train to clear, and hadn't even cleared at that point.
Then this afternoon, I got caught again, and I waited 15 minutes while the train moved back and forth before it finally cleared.
When I got home, I decided to check to see if any of this was illegal. Apparently not, because the federal government only has a "suggested" time of five minutes, and any state laws that have been passed to make this time more binding have been shot down by the courts, because they claim only the federal government can regulate railroads.
What is frustrating is that this happens often where I teach. A couple of months ago, on a day I was gone, there was an incident where all four possible crossings (the three in town and the one on the edge) were blocked for over an hour, right as school was letting out. Now, it just seems plain irresponsible for the railroad, knowing that the times before and after school are the only times traffic is extremely heavy crossing the tracks, to choose these times to move trains, especially when it involves blocking the track for a significant amount of time.
All that being said, any suggestions on what can be done about this?