Driver’s Eye View of 39th St.

by Steve Eshom

Why do we (the taxpayers of Washington) need to spend $110 million for bridge over the tracks at 39th St?  Here’s why:

This photo from the perspective of a driver westbound on 39th St demonstrates what can happen at this crossing.  In the foreground is the ‘north lead’ switch job running a cut of cars out of B6 into the SP&S main yard while the M-LYDINB rolls north on main 2.

Besides the general public’s obvious gripe with the crossing, the railroad too has noted it as an operational headache.  Rarely is there a train that fits between this crossing and Vancouver Center.  This of course causes train crews and dispatchers to have to think more carefully about where trains stop so as to not block the crossing.  In fact some dispatchers won’t even run a train south of Vancouver Jct. North until they know that the train can whiz through the center.  This just pushes the congestion at Vancouver farther to the north.

While the public thinks more of this as just a crossing elimination, it is really the beginnings of a larger project that will streamline transportation in the area.  When construction starts on this project late this year, I’m sure a collective sigh of relief will be heard from both railroad managers and the public.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2007 at 7:22 pm and is filed under general info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.