Stopped trains at OKC crossings aren't just annoying. They can be dangerous | Opinion

If you’re in Oklahoma City, this has probably happened to you:

On the morning of a meeting, I realized I had forgotten to print copies of a report. I drove to my office in Automobile Alley knowing that if the copier cooperates, I would still have 30 minutes to spare. Easy, right? Because the copier never dysfunctions when there’s a time crunch.

Here’s where the story turns. Or, more specifically, gets stuck.

The copier worked fine. The problem was the train.

In what seems to be a common occurrence, a freight train was at a dead standstill on the tracks near NW 10 and Broadway. I’ve learned that it can take 10-20 minutes for it to move, so I turned around, went south on Oklahoma Avenue, and west on NW 6, which goes under the tracks. The problem is that everyone else has learned this trick. The traffic jam turned what is normally a 10-minute drive into 35 minutes.

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It was the third time it happened that week. The other two times were on another portion of the track, as I was driving my son to school. At least one of those times, the train sat still for more than 20 minutes. Granted, these are minor inconveniences. Imagine if an ambulance is trying to get through.

Is it just me, or does this happen a lot? It seems there’s no way to find out. The U.S. Department of Transportation doesn’t require operators to report when trains are blocking a crossing, or for how long. When I asked BNSF Railway for this information, they sent me a link to a government website that shows how many trains travel through a certain crossing per day. Nothing about the frequency or duration of stoppages. If they keep records, they’re not sharing them.

For all the flak the airline industry catches, freight-line operators could take a few lessons from them. Airlines at least track and share information about schedule changes. It’s as easy as a text message or a phone app. Surely railroad operators can create a notification system allowing motorists to sign up for text messages when a train is stopping at a crossing. It would give drivers time to reroute, as opposed to randomly being held hostage at the tracks. If we can put a man on the moon ― not to mention everything we do with artificial intelligence ― someone can surely develop an opt-in notification system for blocked railroad crossings.

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Obviously, there are legitimate reasons for train stoppages ― mechanical issues, allowing other trains to pass and so on. And we respect ― and appreciate ― the attention to safety. But staying safe and staying informed don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

The railroad industry is one of our country’s oldest, most traditional, reliable forms of transportation. It’s a critical part of our infrastructure. But it seems the industry could better serve the communities in which it operates by developing some modern-day communication practices.

Russ Florence lives and works in Oklahoma City. His column appears monthly in Viewpoints.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City stopped freight trains block roads too often