PHOENIX – If you’ve had to wait minutes or hours to cross a railroad track, lawmakers in Arizona are working to provide relief.

A law approved by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Friday limits the length of trains passing through the state to 8,500 feet.

1.6 miles may seem like a long time, but Scott Jones, a licensed Arizona locomotive engineer, says the two major railroads that serve Arizona run trains much longer than that. I told MPs that I would.

What’s wrong with that, he said, when it has to stop to do the switching operation. And he said the train could be left on the main line that extends outside the yard, blocking traffic on both sides.

Scott cited a photo of a 16,800-foot train. Half of that is delivering new cars and trucks to El He Mirage’s ride-hailing facility.

“And they’re blocking the intersection all the way down Grand Avenue,” he said, stretching from Bell Road to 99th Street in Sun City. Access across the road’s tracks remained blocked for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Scott said there are other situations in the railroad yards near Chase Field in downtown Phoenix that have blocked people trying to get to the ballpark from the south on a road with a railroad crossing.

But Rep. Consuelo Hernandez, D-Tucson, whose constituency is spread across the Santa Cruz County countryside, said it’s not strictly a city issue.

She said roads in her part of the state have been closed for over an hour.

“If you can’t cross a train because it’s crossing, that means you can’t go to work or school,” Hernandez said. “It also means that in the event of an accident, first responders will not be able to reach the location on time.”

She also read a letter of support from Rep. Tim Dunn (R-Yuma) citing an incident that blocked Fortuna Road for up to two hours.

“This road is the main arterial access point from Interstate 8 to Highway 95 heading north,” Dunn wrote. “In the event of an emergency where Rural Metro first responders were dispatched from the Foothills location and found Fortuna blocked by a train two miles long, Rural Metro first responders would be dispatched to Yuma. It has to be dispatched from the city, and it costs 12 minutes, a delay in a situation where seconds count.”

Dunn conceded that longer trains could be more economical for businesses to operate.

The Alliance for Innovation and Infrastructure, which describes itself as an independent nonprofit think tank, produced a report that a 10,000- to 12,000-foot train moving freight between Illinois and New Jersey would cost about $60,000. The same cargo, he said, would cost $74,000 to split into two 5,000-foot trains.

However, Dan writes that he is not convinced that long trains are a good idea in Arizona.

“Two-mile-long trains may be economical in the future, but they don’t work with Arizona’s current infrastructure,” Hernandez read Dunn’s letter.

Hernandez says his colleagues have other considerations besides traffic.

She cited a train derailment earlier this month in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling freight cars filled with various toxic chemicals, creating a dangerous situation.

Some of the chemicals were intentionally incinerated to avoid explosions, including five railcars containing carcinogenic vinyl chloride. In addition, some residents continue to complain of rashes and respiratory problems even while temporary evacuations are in place.

Federal investigators say the incident appears to have been caused by a mechanical problem with the rail car’s axle.

However, according to CBS News, an employee who worked on the train believes the train’s excessive length and weight (151 cars, 9,300 feet, 18,000 tons) was a contributing factor to the earlier breakdown and eventual derailment. .

“I don’t want that to happen in Arizona,” Hernandez said.

A more frequent problem, however, concerns traffic.

According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, there are no federal laws or regulations regarding road closures. Also, there are no state laws.

Scott told lawmakers that what exists is an Arizona Business Commission rule that prohibits blocking public flyovers for more than 10 minutes unless the railroad is moving continuously in one direction. But he told legislators that it would be of no help.

“They basically log complaints,” says Scott.

Scott may not be completely neutral on the issue.

He is also a lobbyist for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Aviation, Rail and Transport Workers, the largest railroad union in the country. And Scott complained that what he said was a history of railroad companies trying to save money by extending trains, cutting staff, and so on.

Despite the fact that HB 2531 was filed about a month ago, made available online, and had been on the committee’s agenda for days, no railroad company operating in Arizona has submitted HB 2531. No one was present at the meeting to testify about 2531.

By a 10-0 vote, only Rep. Neil Carter (R-Sun Tan Valley) abstained, sending the bill to the House plenary session.