Question for railroaders

[Anonymous]

Hre in Arlington,Texas there is a ordance that says that trains must slow to 20mph. No restrictions on time of day. However, on the old T&P line that runs through town, the UP seems to run them a lot faster including the fast intermodals. I do know that the track was upgraded to class 4 but how do they NOT violate the ordance? Do they have to get permission to go faster or does the railroad just give the city the rasberry? I am just curious not trying to say anything against the city or UP.

[edblysard]

The tracks and ROW are private property; the railroad is free to run at the speed it and the FRA choose, based on track conditions, and the type of traffic.

FRA mandated speed limits are federal laws...they supersede city ordinance.

The only way the city can enforce its speed limit would be with the cooperation of the UP.

Ed

[Anonymous]

I have no knowledge of the specific situation to which you are referring, but one "guess" is that at some point UP took it to a federal court and got the ordinance overturned as applied to their company. Interstate railroads such as the UP are governed primarily by federal law.

Although some state laws also govern these railroads, federal law prohibits any state or local laws that "interfere with interstate commerce" - which unfairly low speed limits could possibly be considered as such since the physical plant and safety equipment is in place to permit significantly higher train speeds.

Again, this is just a hunch of one way they could have gotten around it.... [8D]

[Anonymous]

I appreciate the responses. Here is a situation that happened when I was younger. In the small town in Texas that I lived in the MOPAC ran through. One evening the local cop got this bright idea to stop the train for going too fast. He chased the train with lights and siren's on for 7 miles to the crew change point. There he gave the engineer a ticket for speeding. Of course this upset the engineer a great deal. For the next six months till the small town, who at first refused to drop the ticket, finally did drop the ticket, the engineers would blow the horn starting at one end of town and not stop till the other end. Also during that six months the traffic on the line seemed to increase especially at night. Now my question is, is this a common occurance?

[wabash1]

first of all a cop can not give me a speeding ticket for what i do on a locomotive. i would not give him my driver lic at all and when he pulled into the yard office he would be tresspassing at this time. also my trainmaster or roadforman would be on my side in that i was going home not a ticket or jail. and then if the cop decided he was still right yes traffic would somewhat increase and slow down and horns would get louder and longer and what normally would have been a 2 minute train might be 30 min .( at least my train would i amke sure i was going slowwwww.)