With the rail industry relying on longer and longer trains to cut costs, the Biden Administration is handing out $570 million in Federal Grants to help eliminate dangerous railroad crossings in 32 states, including Kansas. Kansas will receive $27.5 million to reduce train collisions and blocked crossings. The Grants 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 getting where help is desperately needed. In some places, trains routinely stretch more than 2 miles long and can block crossings for hours, cutting off access to parts of towns.
In addition to problems with blocked crossings, roughly 2,000 collisions are reported at railroad crossings every year. Nearly 250 deaths were recorded last year in car-train crashes. 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.
