[nndl] 51st and Airport rail crossing to get special attention.....Maybe relatedAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF /* */ Published: 11:02 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, 2010 /* */ window.onerror=function(){clickURL=document.location.href;return true;} Despite new signal gate technology meant to clear waiting traffic near the tracks, Capital Metro officials are concerned that some drivers might flout posted signs and railroad signal lights and find themselves in the path of a fast-moving train.
Police officers, at Capital Metro's request, will be monitoring 51st Street near Airport Boulevard and will issue citations immediately to motorists who stop on the track or under the four crossing arms that Capital Metro has installed where the track crosses 51st Street.
That spot is potentially the most problematic of the 65 road crossings on the 32-mile commuter rail line running between Leander and downtown Austin, according to Capital Metro.
"These are not new laws," said Lt. Craig Cannon of the Police Department's highway enforcement command. "This is not a new intersection."
The fines for stopping on the track or ignoring a posted sign (that tells drivers to stop well before or beyond the intersection) can be up to $500 under state law, Cannon said, but he said the average fine probably would be about $200 .
The transit agency, working with the City of Austin (and with Leander, where U.S. 183 passes close to Capital Metro tracks), spent almost $700,000 upgrading "signal pre-emption" technology that is designed to make the traffic lights on Airport Boulevard turn green for cross streets such as 51st when a train is approaching, allowing waiting cars to clear the track.
But Capital Metro now has gates with four crossing arms at these intersections, and cars parked under a crossing arm could be hit and damaged by a lowering arm. Worse yet, a motorist in such a situation might panic, not move and be hit by a train.
The police and Capital Metro are hoping that the presence of the officers, combined with public education efforts over the past year, will reverse long-standing bad driving habits and keep people from violating state law — and putting themselves and people on MetroRail trains in danger.
During two hours one day last summer, an American-Statesman reporter observed about two dozen cars idling under the crossing arms along the track at 51st and 45th streets, and five stopped on the tracks themselves for periods lasting between 10 and 30 seconds. Crossings at 46th and 53rd streets also are close to Airport Boulevard.
During rail testing over the past few months, Capital Metro has posted off-duty Austin police officers at several of the intersections along Airport Boulevard, primarily issuing warning tickets.
"Over a period of time, the number of people stopping on the tracks dropped quite a bit at all of them except 51st," said John Jones, Capital Metro's system security coordinator . "Fifty-first has remained constant."
Stopping on the tracks, though just as illegal as it is now, carried less risk during the many years when the Capital Metro track — owned for decades by Southern Pacific Railroad before first the city and then Capital Metro owned it — had only slow-moving freight trains. Cars in the wrong place had more time to get out of harm's way.
MetroRail trains will be going 35 mph to 40 mph in the stretch along Airport Boulevard, and carrying passengers, which increases the number of people who could get hurt.
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