Cars wait for a train to pass, in Valley, Neb., Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007. With the rail industry relying on longer and longer trains to cut costs, the Biden administration is handing out $570 million in grants to help eliminate railroad crossings in 32 states. The grants announced Monday, June 5, 2023 will help eliminate more than three dozen crossings that delay traffic and sometimes keep first responders from where help is desperately needed. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)
By Josh Funk
With the rail industry relying on longer and longer trains to cut costs, the Biden administration is handing out $570 million in grants to help eliminate many railroad crossings in 32 states.
The grants announced Monday will contribute to building bridges or underpasses at the sites of more than three dozen crossings that delay traffic and sometimes keep first responders from where help is desperately needed.
In some places, trains routinely stretching more than 2 miles (3.2 km) long can block crossings for hours, cutting off access to parts of towns and forcing pedestrians to attempt the dangerous act of climbing through trains that could start moving without warning.
“We see countless stories of people unable to get to work on time, goods being blocked from getting where they need to be and first responders being delayed by these these trains that can be slowed or stopped — even seeing images of children having to crawl between or under freight trains in order to get to school,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
In one case Buttigieg mentioned, a Texas mom called 911 because her 3-month-old baby was in distress, but an idle train kept the ambulance from getting there quickly and the baby died at the hospital two days later.
In addition to problems associated with blocked crossings, roughly 2,000 collisions are reported at railroad crossings every year. Nearly 250 deaths were recorded last year in those car-train crashes. In one instance Buttigieg cited, a woman in California wound up stopped on the tracks after traffic backed up and she was killed when a train slammed into her vehicle.
In recent years, the major freight railroads have overhauled their operations to rely on fewer, longer trains so they can use fewer crews and locomotives as part of efforts to cut costs.
The railroads insist those changes haven't made their trains riskier, but regulators and Congress are scrutinizing their operations closely after several recent high-profile derailments. And the problems at rail crossings are well documented.
These grants are part of $3 billion in funding approved in the $1 trillion infrastructure law for these rail crossing projects that will be doled out over the next five years.
A number of the 63 projects that will receive grants involve only planning and design work for eliminating crossings in the future, but most of the money will go toward physical improvements at crossings and eliminating longstanding problems.
Buttigieg said he plans to visit Grand Forks, North Dakota, Monday to highlight a $30 million grant helping to pay for a project near the University of North Dakota campus that will improve access to the local hospital.
A grant worth nearly $37 million will help eliminate four rail crossings in Houston, which has the second-highest number of rail crossing deaths in the nation. The four new underpasses to be built will reduce traffic delays and improve pedestrian safety.
One $7.2 million grant will help improve access to an area of Fostoria, Ohio, known as the Iron Triangle because it is bordered on three sides by train tracks. A CSX train passes through the community about once every 26 minutes, with warning sirens at the crossings sounding for at least two hours daily. A new bridge will be built over the tracks on one side of the neighborhood to provide a safe route into the area.
In each of these grants, states and cities — sometimes with the help of the railroads — must cover at least 20% of the project cost.
Beginning in November, fully vaccinated international travelers will be able to enter the United States after months of travel restrictions. People under the age of 18 and those from countries without easy access to vaccines will not be required to be vaccinated but all travelers will need to show negative COVID test results before entering.
Apple could soon face a Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit after intensifying its probe into the tech giant, according to a report. The added scrutiny comes after the tech giant had already faced questioning in Washington and concluded an antitrust case brought by Epic Games.
Last week, shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp skyrocketed after following Former Present Trump's announcement that he would be partnering with the company as part of a Special Purpose Acquisition Company, or SPAC. Christian Munafo, Chief Investment Officer of Liberty Street Advisors and portfolio Manager of the Private Shares Fund broke down the latest, including whether or not Wall Street is currently experiencing a SPAC boom.
Jill and Carlo cover the news out of Facebook's latest earnings, Tesla's monumental day, Dave Chappelle addresses controversy and the tragedy of the climate emergency.
Stocks began the week on a high note, with two indexes - the Dow and the S&P 500 - each closing at a record high. Brian Levitt, Global Market Strategist at Invesco, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why the conditions were in place for a jump during the session and provides insight on inflation concerns in the United States.
The price of Bitcoin hit a new all-time high last week following the Wall Street debut of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF. Todd Cipperman, Founding Principal for Cipperman Compliance Services, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he explains why ProShares' ETF got off to a hot start while Valkyrie's Bitcoin Strategy ETF, which debuted just days later, did not.
Rishi Bharwani, the director of partnerships and policy for nonprofit Accountable Tech, joined Cheddar to discuss the hot button topic of regulatory oversight of social media giant Facebook. Bharwani discussed the bipartisan pieces of legislation already making their way through Congress and said the body should pass stronger data privacy laws, ban surveillance advertising, and require meaningful accountability and transparency from the company. "Now I think we've reached a boiling point where congressional action is needed and inaction is no longer acceptable," he said. Bharwani also called for a concurrent investigation into Mark Zuckerberg's company.
The United Nations COP26 climate talks are scheduled for October 31 to November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland. Heads of state will be joined by private sector leaders to once again discuss the shrinking window of time left to take action against global temperature rise. Barbara Humpton, CEO of focused technology company Siemens U.S., is also attending and spoke to Cheddar about what she hopes to see during the conference for both the public and private spheres. "What we are really urging is that there are large commitments made in Glasgow and that we really commit to this next decade of action," she said.
Jessica Mason Pieklo, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at Rewire News Group and co-host of the Rewire News Group podcast, 'Boom! Lawyered,' joins Cheddar News to discuss the Supreme Court decision to hear Texas abortion ban cases on Monday, November first and the complicated timeline of legal challenges up to this point.
