Dear Editor,
It’s Tuesday, March 6, and here we go again. Anyone who needs to get from one side of Huntley to the other will know what I’m about to say. A few weeks ago, MRL made an apology for tying up a crossing near Bozeman for 15 minutes. It even made the news. For everyone who needs to cross the railroad in Huntley, 15 minutes would sometimes be like a Christmas present. Today we had not only one, but two trains block the tracks, one right after the other. It was at the time that people were trying to get to work and the school buses were running. And you know what, we haven’t received an apology.
We’ve had trains stopped on the one and only crossing within 10 miles for up to an hour at a time. We don’t know why the delay, but it may have something to do with the train crew having reached the hours that they are allowed and have to switch out crews. Sometimes it may be for them to switch out cars on a side track. Who knows? If you need to get from one side to the other, the only options are to drive 10 miles to Ballantine, then drive a couple more miles to Worden, then 10 miles to Huntley. If you want, you can drive 10 miles to Billings and go through the Heights and drive another 10 miles to Huntley. And you know what, we haven’t received an apology.
I got very sick last year and was extremely lucky that there were no trains on the track so the ambulance was able to get to me without having to go the detour route. The fire department is just on the north side of tracks and near the crossing. If there is a fire at my house and if the train is blocking the crossing, I would have to wait for a fire truck to come from Worden or Billings. When a train blocks the crossing, we’ve seen cars backed up to the freeway on the south side and backed up to the park on the north side. And you know what, we haven’t received an apology.
MRL has replaced the crossing a few times since we’ve lived here. Each time they completely close the crossing. I don’t know where the crews come from, but they are never in a hurry. They would usually show up at the crossing about 9 a.m. and leave about 3 p.m. One time it was closed for over a week. This last summer we had another complete shutdown while they replaced the crossing. It took over a week and was left closed for the weekend. There was no sense of urgency. They did have a sub-contractor who worked late one night and got the pavement done and opened the crossing. And you know what, we haven’t received an apology.
When we moved here, we knew that the crossing would be an annoyance, but we did have a second crossing that wasn’t used very much, but at least we did have a way. I’m not sure why, but the second crossing got closed and was no longer an option. In the 30-plus years that we have been here, the conditions have changed quite a bit. We have coal cars going east and west, full and empty. We have windmill wings going by. We have planes on trains going past. We have oil tankers going both directions, empty and full. We’ve even had an oil tanker derail right behind my house. The trains now have up to four or five engines in front and another in the back, which is telling me that the trains are getting longer.
I’m not writing this letter to complain about how inconvenient it can be. Even though it is very inconvenient at times, I’m writing to voice my concern for safety. We’ve had one vehicle hit by a train at the crossing. Even though MRL is constantly working on the crossing, sometimes the arms will not come down. We’ve had the arms come down and stay down for very long times with no train in sight. I’ve seen cars trying to beat the train by going around the arms. The arms have been broken by vehicles. At times, road rage is very noticeable.
As I see it, we have three options for the crossing. One is to let it stay as is. With luck, no one will have an emergency with the crossing being blocked. Another option could be putting in a second crossing like we used to have. The third option is to have an overpass built. I am wondering how long it will be before our county commissioners realize that we have a huge safety concern here in Huntley. Even though we have concerns about the Pryor Creek and Yellowstone River flooding, there is one that is an even bigger safety concern. It is the railroad. During the last flood, the Pryor Creek Bridge washed out. People who lived north of the creek and south of the railroad had only one way to get out or receive help. It was going over the railroad crossing. We were lucky that we didn’t have an emergency during the months that it took to build a new bridge. If we would have and if the crossing was blocked, we would have been out of luck.
Even though we aren’t a big town with a county commissioner living here, we do have a huge amount of traffic coming through town. We are the only railroad crossing for ten miles either direction. We have enough traffic that the sheriff has a deputy patrolling here during the rush hours. Billings even sends out a dog catcher. If the county is concerned enough about a loose dog, I would like to think that they are somewhat concerned about our safety.
Bob Knickerbocker
Huntley
