SC lawmaker hates trains blocking roads, too, and he's doing something about it

The City of Columbia already has an ordinance that bans trains from blocking traffic for more than five minutes. The state of South Carolina does, too. But both have failed to curb traffic backups that routinely occur several times a day when trains stop across state roads.

A state representative wants to fix that.

State Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, said Monday he will file a bill that stiffens the penalties for trains that sit for longer than five minutes on state roads.

The current penalty is between $5 and $20. Rutherford’s bill would increase that fine to $5,000 for each lane that is blocked. The fine would increase to $10,000 for each lane blocked if the train sits for longer than five minutes between 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m.

“We cannot allow trains and obstructions to paralyze our roadways,” Rutherford, the House minority leader, said in a press release.

Nearly 30 trains a day can come through downtown Columbia, some stopping for mechanical problems or trains switching cars, according to Sgt. Robert Uhall of the Columbia Police Department.

However, the city’s anti-road-blocking ordinance — adopted in 1979 — rarely is enforced. The ordinance applies only to stopped trains or those that are moving or switching cars. To enforce the ordinance, police would have to investigate why a particular train is stopped, which could make the delay worse.

“They’re going to have to hold up even longer for us to make contact with them, and, typically, we’re going to have to walk a mile” down the tracks to get to a train’s engineer, Uhall said.

City and state train laws mostly are overridden by federal regulations the trains must follow, said Federal Railroad Administration spokesperson Desiree French.

Regardless, state residents should not have to suffer because they live near a track, Rutherford said. “They (federal officials) can certainly come up here, but until then I would like this to be the state law. Somebody needs to be paying attention.”

▪ For complaints about extended delays due to stopped trains, call Norfolk Southern at 800-946-4744 or CSX through an online complaint system at www.csx.com/tellcsx.

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 11:37 AM with the headline "SC lawmaker hates trains blocking roads, too, and he's doing something about it."