ATLANTA — Trains continue trapping people in their northwest Atlanta neighborhoods.
CSX owns the railway and held a town hall in the Hunter Hills community last month, promising neighbors it would work to prevent future blockages and buy benches for people to sit and wait.
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“I haven’t seen nothing happen,” said Andrea Swain.
Swain was directing traffic Monday when a train blocked Chappell Road for nearly two hours Monday.
State Rep. Mesha Mainor, born and raised there, was stuck in traffic.
“Somebody was about to crawl underneath the train, and all of a sudden, you see another train coming,” said Mainor. “When I was that, I was trying to jump out and tell the person there’s a train coming.”
Mainor pushed Atlanta City Council members to write an ordinance that would limit the time a train can block a city intersection. However, Council members like Byron Amos said that would be up to Congress because the federal Department of Transportation governs railroads.
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Amos said he would like to apply for a grant to install a pedestrian bridge at the intersection. He’d also like to pay to put detour signs that warn drivers when a train is blocking the road.
He said his position as the Board of Director for the National League of Cities could help with that.
Channel 2′s Courtney Francisco has been reporting on the blockages since April.
Neighbors said it’s been happening for decades. Trains have been known to block the intersection for up to 30 hours at a time.
“You have (an) ambulance coming through, the fire department coming through, and then you have the school buses coming through here,” said Swain.
CSX said in a statement this week:
“At CSX, we strive to be a good neighbor to the communities where we operate. On Monday, a CSX train was stopped in order to allow other trains to pass, which resulted in the Chappell Road crossing being blocked. We are working to prevent extended blockages at Chappell Road, however, there may be a rare instance that the crossing is blocked due to dynamic shifts in rail traffic. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to motorists and pedestrians waiting for our train to pass. CSX maintains an open line of communication with local officials and our operations team is committed to reducing occurrences that affect drivers or normal traffic flow. Our goal is to keep freight moving and we take every reasonable effort to ensure that our trains occupy grade crossings for the shortest time possible.”
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