The United States owes a lot of its economic strength to railroads.
From the B&O Railroad to the transcontinental connection that linked both sides of the nation in 1869 to the 160,000 miles of track webbed across the nation today carrying foods, fuels, passengers and products, railroads remain a critically important network of commerce.
They also represent major barriers to the connectivity of cities. That’s a fact playing out in Fayetteville as the city continues its pursuit of 100 interconnected miles of trails on which residents and visitors can walk and bike their way to a healthier and less-polluted future. Trails will become even more popular as the Razorback Greenway establishes a link among the four major cities of Northwest Arkansas in the years ahead.
Railroads hold a great deal of power. The federal government and states, mindful of their vital role in interstate commerce and economic development, grant railroads tremendous leeway in how they operate.
City governments can condemn the property of private landowners for trails and streets, but have far less authority in demanding rights to cross, go over or under railroad property.
That fact may cost the taxpayers of Fayetteville a quarter of a million dollars.
Fayetteville has a “license and agreement” dating to 2008 that has allowed construction of the Scull Creek Trail. Mayor Lioneld Jordan recently wrote the president of Arkansas & Missouri Railroad expressing appreciation for the cooperative arrangement that “has worked well by limiting the access for people to walk the railroads and instead giving them a safe well-lighted place to travel by foot or bicycle.”
The A&M Railroad operates freight and excursion trains on 150 miles of rail between Monett, Mo., to Fort Smith. Its home oft ce is in Springdale.
Jordan requested the addition of four new locations to that agreement for trail construction. Matt Mihalevich, the city’s trail coordinator, told me two are on abandoned rail lines south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. Fayetteville approached the railroad about an outright purchase of those properties, but A&M oft cials suggested just adding them to the existing agreement.
Two other “crossings” actually involve going under the active railway through Fayetteville: one at a trestle along Town Branch Creek south of 15th Street near Razorback Road and at Cato Springs Creek south of Cato Springs Road.
In response, A&M President Brent McCready wrote Jordan with commendation for Fayetteville’s leadership as “the catalyst for multi-use trail construction within our region.” Then, without indicating any agreement with Jordan’s request for the additional locations, McCready explains that A&M is investigating “safety upgrades” to the railroad’s crossing of Dickson Street.
Pedestrian and “vehicular” traftc continues to increase at this crossing, McCready notes, and the upgrade will affect the location and width of the trail adjacent to the tracks there.
He said the railroad wants the city to commit to paying half - up to $250,000 - of the safety improvements, which apparently include mechanical arms to descend across the street as a train approaches. “As the city continues to expand its trail system near our facilities, we are confident safety will be a priority,” McCready said in the letter.
Sounds like quid pro quo, doesn’t it? You scratch my railroad, I’ll scratch your trail.
For years, it has amazedme that trains run through Fayetteville and other towns in Northwest Arkansas without the railroad crossing arms to stop traftc as a train approaches street crossings.
Flashing lights are fi ne, but nothing gets one’s attention quite like the descent of those arms.
In particular, Dickson Street’s crossing seems to beg for the crossing arms.
Situated in such an urban area, the sight distances are short. Even with trains slowing down, it’s easy for their arrival to surprise motorists who might be jamming to their tunes in the “safe” confines of the cars or pedestrians rocking to their music through headphones.
And now that the city wants to build up its trail system, the price for taxpayers to run and bike through their own city is apparently $250,000. It’s hard to resist calling it the Great Train Robbery. I guess I didn’t.
The price is steep for a safety improvement that ought to be the railroad’s gift to the city it traverses in the conduct of its business.
If Fayetteville is to agree to this deal, $250,000 should buy every crossing the city needs for, say, the next 25 years or so. Anything short of that will feel, well, like Fayetteville is getting railroaded.
GREG HARTON IS OPINION PAGE EDITOR FOR NWA MEDIA.
Opinion, Pages 5 on 09/23/2013