Half of Kansas rail crossings lack signals — some say that's just the start of the safety problems
Crossing railway tracks is a daily fact of life in most Kansas communities.
The industry is a key part of the state's history and lore, from its status as the terminus of the Chisholm Trail and a crucial waypoint for cattle drivers to the freight companies that have borne the name of Kansas cities for decades.
But Glen Tyson has seen firsthand how a quotidian task can turn dangerous.
Tyson is the recently retired director of public works in Osage County but also works in the local volunteer fire department, giving him a unique perspective on the issue.
In January, he was one of the first to respond to a BNSF train hitting a pickup truck at a crossing outside Olivet, killing the driver.
What would be a painful scene under any circumstance was made worse when he discovered the identity of the driver, John Harsch, whose family was close friends of Tyson's.
"That's the bad part about being a volunteer fireman or first-responder in a small town," he said. "A lot of times, it's somebody you know."
Osage County has 63 railway crossings, according to Kansas Department of Transportation records, and while a growing number have devices warning of oncoming trains many — such as the one in Olivet — do not.
The same thing is true statewide.
All public crossings in Kansas should have at least a passive warning for drivers, such as crossbucks or a yield sign, indicating they are about to encounter a railway crossing, such as a sign indicating to yield or stop.
But fewer than half of the 5,039 crossings in Kansas have an active warning device, such as flashing lights or automatic gates that descend when a train is approaching, KDOT data shows.
And some worry the growing length of freight trains poses its own safety hazards by tying up tracks, blocking travel and even making crossings deadly.
The derailment of an Amtrak train in central Missouri last month after it collided with a dump truck, a crash that killed four people, has restarted conversations about railway safety nationally.
The Missouri crash came after residents and local officials in rural Chariton County had attempted to notify state officials of the dangers the crossing posed.
But Tyson noted it could just have easily been an Osage County community where the accident occurred — a sentiment shared by many, who think Kansas could be the site of a similar tragedy.
"It is just a matter of luck that happened in Missouri and not in Kansas," said Chad Henton, a railway worker and assistant legislative director for the Kansas local of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers.
Crashes often occur at crossings without safety features
According to Federal Railway Administration data, over 60% of the 81 crashes in the state since 2020 have happened at crossings without gates.
Many of the remaining crossings without an active warning device are less trafficked and are predominantly in more rural areas, although that isn't always the case.
One crossing in Topeka on a private drive outside a concrete company has seen four accidents since 2004.
And crossings often can have sightlines that make it difficult to see oncoming trains, particularly from the cab of a tractor or combine, which frequent rural county or township roads.
Tyson said he had a close call with a BNSF freight train at a crossing near his farm in Melvern.
Federal records show an accident occurred at that very place in 2007, though the crossing hasn't been bolstered with more safety features.
Yet a crossing two streets over has gates, Tyson said, even though the traffic patterns on the two don't differ meaningfully.
In fact, the crossing by his house has seen a three- or four-fold increase in the number of cars after another area road was shut down. All the while the tracks have stayed busy with cars going to a major intermodal hub in Gardner.
"There's lots of train traffic on these two tracks down here," he said.
Federal funding helps boost rail crossing safety — but funds are limited
Kansas, like all states, gets a set amount of federal funding each year to help implement safety measures at crossings.
A running inventory of crossings across the state includes a calculation of how risky a particular location is, with a higher rank meaning it has priority to eventually be upgraded with lights or gates.
After an initial confirmation the inventory data is accurate, a team will conduct an on-site review of the crossing. Once complete KDOT and local officials, as well as the railway that owns the tracks, will develop an agreement.
More: Cross with caution: Lack of oversight creates safety risks at private railroad crossings
BNSF and Union Pacific, the two most prominent freight operators in Kansas, said the decision as to which crossing gets an active warning device is left up to state and local governments, but spokespeople for both companies said they will support those efforts.
"BNSF works cooperatively with the states on our network to install active warning devices on the public crossings that the state has determined are in need of such upgrades," BNSF spokesperson Benjamin Wilemon said.
This generally works well in practice, Harvey County Commissioner Chip Westfall said, though the process from start to finish can take several years once a potential site is identified.
Still, the safety measures are important in the county, which is bisected by the same train, the Southwest Chief, that derailed in Missouri, as well as countless freight trains per day.
"Those trains can run 90 miles an hour, when people usually aren't computing in their brain, ‘90 miles an hour, that's closing faster than it appears,’" Westfall said.
But funding from Washington is limited, totaling around $6.5 million per year. On average, only a couple dozen projects are actually wrapped up in a given year — that number was 31 in 2021 and 17 the year prior, said KDOT spokesperson Steve Hale.
Ty Dragoo, legislative director for the Kansas local of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers, said it should be incumbent on railroad companies, such as BNSF or Union Pacific, to be more proactive about ponying up funds to make crossings safer.
Henton, the railway worker and assistant legislative director, added it is routine for railway workers to see crossings shrouded by overgrown weeds or tree limbs.
Inertia within the railway companies to address the issue, he said, has faded in recent years however in cost-cutting moves, with weed treatments and tree trimming less frequent.
"Public safety and safety of the railroad crews come secondly to them to their profits," Henton said.
Wilemon said BNSF believes "nothing is more important than safety" and said they have partnered with a federal program to increase public awareness about rail safety, as well as things like vegetation management.
Union Pacific spokesperson Robynn Tysver echoed that sentiment.
"Union Pacific maintains its portion of road crossings in compliance with federal, state and Union Pacific standards," Tysver said in an email.
Longer train lengths raise safety concerns
Frequently the issue isn't the crossings themselves but the trains that roll through them — and roll and roll and roll.
The increasing length of freight trains has meant towns can be divided for a prolonged period of time, stymying first-responders and those with urgent appointments.
BNSF said its trains mainly top out at 8,500 feet and Union Pacific said its average length is 9,205 feet. But Dragoo disputed this, arguing trains can often be twice as long.
Railroads argue longer trains also provide safety benefits, as it means fewer trains per day on tracks, something that also reduces the amount of waiting for consumers at stops. They also can save fuel and thus cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
"Union Pacific is streamlining operations to move rail cars through communities in a safe, efficient manner," said Tysver.
But Henton said this can lead to residents attempting to circumvent gates, knowing they are facing a prolonged wait and disruption to their schedule otherwise.
"They've decided to try to beat the train at the last minute, so they don't have to drive around 6 miles to get around the crossing," he said.
This has prompted local officials to find ways to adapt.
At Newton High School, for instance, teachers typically don't mark students as tardy if they are delayed by a train, in an effort to stop kids from attempting to cross the tracks in an unsafe situation.
Chase County Sheriff Richard Dorneker said the problem of trains blocking crossings has gone on for years but can cause major problems in the event of an emergency.
He recalled a shooting on the Kansas Turnpike where he attempted to respond but kept running into blocked crossings, forcing him to travel an hour out of his way to get to the scene.
And a pair of crossings south of Bazaar are frequently blocked — a big problem, as they represent the only way in and out of a neighborhood, posing a threat for a handful of elderly residents, as well as a pregnant woman and her husband.
"The husband reached out to BNSF and said: 'Hey, you know, my wife is pregnant. If she goes into labor, I gotta get out of here. You've got to quit blocking the crossing," Dorneker said.
"Their answer to him was, 'Well, she's gonna either have to crawl under the train or over the train, and you can leave a vehicle on the other side of the tracks."
Those longer trains aren't rolling at all, but rather are stopped on the tracks, sometimes for days at a time.
This can have fatal consequences.
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, pointed to an October accident in Maize, where a woman was killed and her two daughters injured while driving across three railway tracks. Freight cars were stopped on two of the three tracks, making it difficult to see an oncoming train.
"I think that could have happened to anybody," McGinn said.
Bill to address safety issues has uncertain fate in Kansas Legislature
McGinn has proposed legislation in the Kansas Senate that would curb train length, as well as require a "device warning of an impending train, locomotive, or light engine" in areas where an incline, vegetation or debris might obscure the tracks, a provision primarily intended to help keep employees secure.
Senate Bill 530 would allow KDOT to assess fines if railroads didn't comply, as well as order them to take certain actions.
But this provision could quickly thrust the state into legal and regulatory uncertainty.
A 2018 ruling from the Kansas Court of Appeals struck down a similar law, allowing KDOT to punish railroads who allow trains to linger too long at crossings, arguing the federal Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act pre-empts state attempts to regulate railroad operations.
Attorney General Derek Schmidt's office told nonpartisan legislative staff that SB 530, if enacted, was likely to be successfully challenged, meaning Schmidt's office might not wish to defend the law in court in a bid to save taxpayer resources.
Dragoo argued the court erred in its ruling, however, arguing the provisions at issue were not regulated on a federal level at all and thus should be left up to the states.
He added some other states continue to have restrictions on train length and crossing blocking on the books, even as other courts have sided with railroads.
"It's a lot of smoke and mirrors they put up. It is always litigated," he said. "But the fact that states cannot do that is something we just do not believe in."
SB 530 didn't get a hearing in 2022 but McGinn has vowed to introduce it again next session, though it has been met with resistance from freight companies.
'What is safety worth?'
In the meantime, communities across Kansas have attempted to cope.
Ken Kuykendall, a former Osage County commissioner who worked on the issue while he served as a local elected official, noted he was sympathetic to concerns from the railroad that chipping in to provide active warning devices on smaller local roads, like those in his county, would be cost-prohibitive.
But at the same time, he added, it is difficult to put a price on safety.
"What is safety worth?" Kuykendall asked. "When someone gets killed, it is worth a whole lot."
Andrew Bahl is a senior statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached at abahl@gannett.com or by phone at 443-979-6100.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: After Missouri train derailment, Kansas officials worry about safety
