(The Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier posted the following story by Pat Kinney on its website on September 16.)
WATERLOO, Iowa — It’s an age-old problem in east Waterloo.
Trains blocking East Fourth Street. Trains blocking Glenwood Street. Trains blocking Nevada Street. Trains blocking almost any north-south street without an overpass at one time or another.
Some neighbors and city officials say it’s gotten worse — more trains, longer trains and longer detours.
“I have been a resident of Waterloo all my life — 70 years — and cannot remember a time when these railroad crossings were blocked for such a long period of time,” resident Jacqueline Ellis of 431 Wendell Court wrote city and county officials.
At-large City Council member Harold Getty, an east side resident, agrees.
“Over on East Fourth Street, they are blocking the intersection for a lot longer than we feel they need to,” Getty said.
That was no more evident than two weeks ago, when trains blocked East Fourth for a half hour at an unrelated community cleanup press conference called by Mayor John Rooff at East Fourth and Sumner streets.
Neighborhood association members in attendance — J.C. Green and J.R. Green of the Northeast Neighborhood Association — said longer trains are simultaneously blocking multiple east-side crossings, contrary to previous policy worked out years ago with former railroad companies.
Getty and Fourth Ward council member John Kincaid said they’ve been receiving more calls since Canadian National Railway took over the former Illinois Central line and switching yard along East Fourth a few years ago.
“I’m getting a lot of complaints about it,” Kincaid said. “Because it sits all the way along Dubuque Road. And what they’re concerned about is if there’s an emergency, how soon an ambulance can get over to McKinstry School?”
It’s more than the East Fourth and Glenwood crossings, Kincaid said. “It’s all the way around Dubuque Road, Maywood, all the way around.”
“They’re keeping all that blocked out there. We’re going to have a problem,” Getty said. “I think we’re going to have to call the railroad people in and sit down with them and the police chief and say we just can’t accept it. It’s not acceptable.”
“That’s the only way we can get it straightened out, is to have a work session or something with them,” Kincaid said.
“What the people have to do is call the Police Department, call dispatch, and let them know that’s been blocking for how long, and they’ll send a squad car out to the yard master and the engineer and get it stopped,” Getty said.
Canadian National officials said they were not aware of such complaints, but were checking into the situation. Its east side main line is part of a major cross-country route between Chicago and Western coal fields in the Powder River basin in Wyoming. A considerable amount of transcontinental freight of all kinds is shipped over the line.
Dave Hill, a Waterloo-based risk manager for Canadian National’s region between Freeport, Ill., and Omaha, Neb., said the railroad has not experienced an uptick in complaints or the length of trains since CN took over from Illinois Central.
“Whether they’re longer or not depends on production requirements,” Hill said. If, for example, John Deere requires an increase in raw materials at its Waterloo operations, the railroad supplies them.
Deere is not the railroad’s only customer, Hill said. Frequently, trains are stopped as they are being assembled for brake testing to meet federal requirements.
“At the same time, we’re sensitive to the needs of the community,” Hill said. The railroad also is involved in hazardous materials training with Waterloo Fire Rescue.
“We’ll do whatever we can to respond to the needs of the community,” Hill said. “If there’s a committee that wants to sit down and talk, we’re never going to be an impediment to that.”
Hill also noted the railroad has a person devoted to trimming and maintaining railroad crossings.
The city and railroads have cooperated in the past.
In 1988-89, an East Fourth Street Improvement Committee of citizens and business owners formed by then-Mayor Bernie McKinley studied the East Fourth crossing, and led to the city and what was then the Chicago Central & Pacific Railroad to improve the crossing, making it smoother for motor vehicle traffic.
A pedestrian overpass was considered at East Fourth at that time, and has been a recurring discussion topic there or at other locations over the years, without success, with handicap accessibility requirements being a difficulty.
More recently, both the Union Pacific and Canadian National railroads pledged cooperation with neighborhood groups in clearing overgrown rail crossings at Mobile and Glenwood streets, respectively.