(The following story by Brandon Bailey appeared on the San Jose Mercury News website on January 27.)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — State and local authorities say they would like to eliminate the kind of railroad grade crossings that allowed a suicidal man to drive into the path of a Southern California commuter train Wednesday, but funding shortages and other obstacles mean the work would take decades to complete.
It could cost $1 billion to build tunnels or trestles at 48 points where the Caltrain passenger line crosses public roads between San Francisco and San Jose, for example.
“There’s a tremendous backlog in applications for limited funding,” said Richard Clark of the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates railroad safety in the state.
The attempted suicide in Glendale triggered a derailment disaster that killed 11 people and injured more than 180 when a packed commuter train struck the man’s SUV and then careened into a second train traveling in the opposite direction.
Workers at a nearby Costco store helped rescue workers pull scores of injured passengers from the wreckage, which officials said was triggered by a motorist who drove his Jeep Cherokee onto the railroad right of way from a point where the tracks crossed a public road. State officials said the man apparently drove about 150 feet south of the crossing and then parked on the tracks.
But after stabbing himself and slashing his wrists, the man apparently changed his mind and got out of the Jeep, leaving it in the path of an oncoming Metrolink train. Glendale police said Juan Manuel Alvarez, 25, may be charged with homicide, although Los Angeles County prosecutors said charges will depend on his state of mind.
The Jeep’s wheels reportedly were wedged between the tracks, which may have helped cause the derailment.
A railroad-union official faulted the configuration of the train that struck the Jeep. The locomotive was pushing the other railroad cars from the rear, and the engineer was at the controls in a “cab car” at the front of the train. Such arrangements are common on passenger trains, including the Peninsula Caltrain line, to save the time of switching the locomotive to the other end of the train when it switches direction.
A representative of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen told the Associated Press that the lighter cab car might be more prone to derailing than a heavier locomotive. But PUC official George Elsmore said federal crash tests found the 110-ton cab cars reacted similarly to locomotives, which weigh 120 to 130 tons.
Several rail authorities, however, acknowledged that a “grade separation” — in which the train tracks run over or under the road — could have prevented Alvarez from driving onto the tracks.
Such improvements are the goal of many safety advocates, who say it’s too easy for accidents and suicides to occur when motorists are crossing the tracks. But in many cases, the goal has been elusive.
There are about 11,000 railroad crossings around the state and only about 2,000 of them use tunnels or trestles to separate the road from the tracks. It can cost up to $40 million to retrofit a crossing, particularly in urban areas where construction can affect surrounding homes and businesses.
And in some cases, as in Menlo Park and Redwood City, residents have campaigned against such efforts.
Ultimately, Caltrain officials would like to “grade separate” every crossing on their 50-mile right of way, according to spokeswoman Jayme Maltbie Kunz. She said the agency has worked with cities to build separations at about 30 crossings to date. Five more are to be improved this year, at a cost of $100 million.
But that leaves more than 40 to go. And there is no timetable for completion, although Kunz said a proposed 2006 ballot measure for high-speed rail projects could provide the necessary funding.
The PUC doles out federal funding to assist such projects, but it gets only about $15 million each year. The rest of the tab must be paid by local governments, public-transportation agencies and railroads.
Private railroads often resist such efforts. “I don’t think grade separations are much of a fix,” said John Bromley, director of public affairs for Union Pacific, which owns much of the private railroad right of way in California. “You’re not going to be able to eliminate all the crossings.”
California has one of the highest fatality rates in the nation for people who trespass on railroad tracks, according to the PUC, which counted 129 suicides involving trains since 2000. Caltrain had seven suicides last year, according to Kunz. She said Caltrain trains strike about three vehicles a year, but officials could recall no derailments.
(The Associated Press and the New York Times contributed to this report.)