New legislation has been filed in Oklahoma to limit train length with the goal of improving safety and limiting traffic delays due to stopped trains.
This new legislation aiming to make train lengths shorter in Oklahoma is supposed to help the safety of traffic, train crews and prevent any disasters.
“The infrastructure that the railroad companies have for this isn’t sustainable for the lengths of trains that they are running,” said State Representative Ty Burns.
Burns represents District 35, which includes several rural towns in Osage, Pawnee and Creek Counties. In those areas, trains are nothing out of the ordinary.
However, it’s also normal for trains running through these areas to stop for hours, blocking several intersections.
“The piece that I told them that I agreed to run is minimizing train length. What we are looking at is minimizing train length to 8,500 feet.”
Oklahoma is nowhere near the top of these issues, but it’s an issue lawmakers like Ty Burns are attempting to get ahead of before it becomes more serious.
“What we are looking into is some of these trains are 15,000 feet long and their yards are not able to withstand that length of the train so they’re backed up all the way on the tracks, which are pushing trains to hold off in the middle of nowhere. Well again, it don’t seem like much but we have farmers and ranchers and people that live in rural communities like I do in Morrison that are trapped for hours because they’re clogged up at the end of the yard.”
Burns wants to limit train size to about a mile and a half, a length which he believes will relieve Oklahoma railroad infrastructure and also lighten the burden on local traffic and train crews.
Other states have implemented a similar limit on train size, such as Missouri who splits trains up when they cross the border into their state. Burns said he hopes to do the same in Oklahoma, leading to minimal impact on interstate commerce.
This bill will be introduced at the upcoming legislative session, which begins in early February.
Sign Up
