Hattiesburg officials hope they can convince the railroad companies to switch their trains south of town to alleviate traffic and safety problems that have drawn complaints by the City Council and local residents.
If not, other alternatives are overpasses or underpasses, which City Council President Carter Carroll said are big and expensive.
“Overpasses are realistic, and they are very expensive,” he said. “We would have to discuss where we are going to put it and there is going to be widening of roads for that. We would have to have federal funds.”
Ann Jones, the city’s chief administrative officer, presented an information packet to the City Council at Monday’s work session at City Hall. She said officials have received several telephone calls about train obstructions.
“We receive calls many days from concerned citizens,” she said. “We have received comments from the City Council about the trains stopping in the middle of our roads, completely obstructing traffic. We have heard complaints of inconvenience. We have heard concerns and complaints about safety issues and being unable to respond to police calls, medical calls and fire calls. We recognize that there is an issue with the obstruction of our roadways.”
Jones said the time spent waiting on a train has been staggering.
“Just recently, we have had some delays reported to us that were 10 minutes, 30 minutes and 45 minutes,” she said. “In one instance in particular, we were in traffic for an hour with the roadway being blocked.”
Jones told Council members that she had compiled information from other towns that are dealing with the same issue.
“Take this information, go through it, digest and I would like to get your feedback,” she said. “We would like to put together an amended ordinance dealing with trains that actually works.”
Carroll said he has been a victim of trains that blocked the roadways.
“I get caught about once every two weeks because my granddaughter goes to Sacred Heart School and so either taking her to school or picking her up, we’ll get caught,” he said. “I hear a lot from the community about stopping at the train tracks, especially in the wards that the train tracks go through.”
Carroll said residents are worried about the safety issues involved in blocking first responders.
“There is a lot of concern about that because we have ambulances that are delayed and fire trucks that are delayed,” he said. “It’s a big concern and I hope we can do something about it. We just need to make a study of it and see how the railroads are going to cooperate with us.”
Jones said initial contacts with the railroad companies have not been successful. She added that the current ordinance restricts road blockage to a time limit of five minutes with a fine typically of $50.
Ward 2’s Deborah Delgado agreed that the railroad companies should be involved in moving the switching yard from the downtown area.
“I believe blockage in downtown is purely a planning problem,” she said. “There was some discussion about moving the switching yard where it would be out of the way.”
The next City Council meeting will be at 5 p.m. April 17. An agenda-setting meeting will be at 4 p.m. April 16.
