Series of events forced CSX train to stop in Kingston 4/24

KINGSTON - A series of events on railroad tracks south of Kingston forced a CSX freight train to stop for about an hour on Saturday, blocking two of the city's six crossings.

CSX spokesman John Casellini said three separate incidents forced the 11:45 a.m. stoppage, which prevented vehicles from crossing the tracks on Flatbush Avenue and nearby Gage Street. The city's other four crossings were unaffected.

Casellini said a rock slide, a truck abandoned on the tracks and a vehicle striking a railroad bridge were to blame. The three incidents happened Friday night and Saturday morning outside of Ulster County, he said.

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/site/news.c ... 4958&rfi=6

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I wonder if the local gendarmerie 'ticketed' the engineer for 'illegal parking'????? Or maybe for 'failure to yield right-of-way'???

Three posts with the same thing????

I've seen tempers flare on the posts over this issue in the past. I just wonder if CSX is aware of the contingency plans that some of the local emergency services personnel in the various cities and counties have developed. (although I am not aware of any in Kingston)

It doesn't take much for a fire chief to declare an emergency. Even the slimmest of pretexts will do, and said fire chief can call in excavators and bulldozers and simply remove the offending train cars, along with the track as necessary. (I'm not advocating any of this, so please no flaming). Last I heard was that they thought they could make CSX pay for it too. I imagine that's correct, particularly if there an ordinance violation.

Some of the discussions surround "teaching them a lesson before something serious happens".... Since some of the fire districts in Rockland County have more money than God, it doesn't take much to envision something happening.

I think that CSX can get together a law team that could 'own' anything any small city or county could get in a court of law. That fire chief would also have some explaining to do to the STB I'd think.

Re: the STB-

That's what I said when I first heard about it, that the STB in its power to regulate might trump all, but the answer (s) I got back was this:

1. It's well settled that emergency officials (particularly fire chiefs) have broad power to act when such an emergency occurs. The example given to me was that the fire chief would be empowered to stop a train and siphon fuel if he needed it, and regardless, the FD is always empowered to block tracks while operating at a call. The STB has zip to say about that.
2. If there's any kind of emergency that could hold any water at all, the fire chief would be on firm ground
3. Railroads are still private property and are still subject to certain sate and local regulation, e.g., fire codes, vehicle registration and such.
4. They pretty much felt they could get away with anything once, and still force CSX to pay as long as they could show that CSX's illegal act was contributing to the alleged emergency.

I dunno.

Under the same theory, one could make the zoning board and housing developers pay for only having one exit to a development, or for general bad planning of where they allow growth relative to railroad tracks, and the location of fire stations.