(The following report appeared on the Aurora, Ill., Beacon News website on June 15.)
BIG ROCK, Ill. — A $5,000 parking ticket.
That is, in essence, what a Kane County deputy wrote to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad for “parking” one of its trains for more than an hour on the Rhodes Street crossing in the downtown of this western Kane County community.
The deputy noticed the train stopped at the crossing at 7:44 a.m. Friday. What he actually noticed first was the traffic back-up the stopped train was causing. Rhodes Street is the only north-south street that goes through the village, and traffic was backed up along the street, and then onto Route 30, the main east-west thoroughfare in town.
Not only were both main streets blocked, but with the train on Rhodes for that long, it cut off emergency vehicles housed on the south side of the tracks from getting to the north side.
After directing traffic, the deputy got the train number and wrote a ticket to the railroad: $1,000 for the first 25 minutes it was on the track, and $500 for every five minutes after that.
The train started moving at 8:51 a.m., which means it incurred about a $5,000 fine. It was stopped for 67 minutes, the deputy said. Stopping on the tracks for that long violates railroad safety requirements in the Illinois Vehicle Code, the Kane County sheriff’s office said.
Steve Forsberg, general director of public affairs for the railroad, said Monday he was unsure of the specifics of the situation. He said the railroad tries not to block any crossing for more than 15 minutes.
But he said the Rhodes Street crossing not only goes over tracks, but over a track siding, which is where trains are supposed to stop to let other trains pass.
“We try not to block any crossings for very long, because it benefits us, too, to keep the trains moving,” he said.
He said because Rhodes Street is the only crossing in town, it probably is “an ideal candidate” for grade separation — either a bridge or a tunnel.