Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Officials are working to address big delays at railroad crossings throughout the City of Howell but their hands are somewhat tied.

Problems have been going on for at least five months per City Manager Erv Suida. He told WHMI trains are stopping multiple times a day - blocking all of the north and south rail crossings in town. Suida noted the CSX rail line basically separates the south and north ends of town.

The trains have been stopping anywhere from 30 minutes to almost an hour and sometimes even more than that at inconvenient times of the day and evening. That results in big traffic back-ups. WHMI has also been fielding calls and emails from listeners about the long delays and inconvenience.

Suida said unfortunately, the law is not on their side. However, he said they have been working with representatives from both CSX Railroad and Great Lake Crossings on the way they have been swapping out rail. Local Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin’s team is also working with the Federal Railroad Administration on issues.

Suida said it seems that CSX and GLC are swapping 20-30-rail cars a day – which is a process to hook back up and that is what appears to be the big issue. He added it’s never been an issue before so they’re trying to figure out why now and are hoping to get a resolution soon.

Suida said hopefully between everyone communicating and working toward a solution, they can come up with something relatively quickly because it is a hassle. He added it’s also really difficult to get emergency vehicles to the south side of town when trains are stopped. The DPW is also located on the south side, which makes it hard to deliver services to the north side.

Suida said the good news is that everybody is aware of the issues and are working on it and they’re hoping that things get better sooner than later.