Why don't trains stop for traffic instead of traffic stopping for trains?

Question

why don't cars get the right of way, some sweetheart deal with the robber barons?

Maybe I worded the question incorrectly. That has to be why not one person gets it.
Why don't trains go over or under roads? Why does there have to be a crossing? I think it would be more efficient all the way around if trains and cars did not intersect.

Answer 1

More efficient to have under or overpasses? Yes.

Prohibitively expensive? Yes.

Answer 2

There are several reasons why cars must stop for trains and not the other way around.

Trains are normally very massive, and take several miles and quite a bit of time to build up momentum in order to move their cargo. To start and stop constantly, because there are tons of railroad crossings across the U.S. lines, would mean inefficiency time wise and fuel wise. Railroads are used to move large cargo across the country, and while it may seem that road and air travel would be more efficient, obviously that's not the case.

I may be wrong on exact information, but this is a simple explanation.

Answer 3

G'day Mel,

Thanks for the question.

There are several good reasons why traffic stops for trains rather than the other way.

a) trains run less frequently than traffic so there is less inconvenience: a train delayed for traffic would often stay there for some time;

b) it takes much longer to stop a train than a car so it might not be able to stop in time - an eight car passenger train takes over a mile to stop;

c) safety issues as a train is much bigger than any item of traffic you are 30 times more likely to die in a collision with a train than with another car.

I have attached a reference for further reading.

Regards

Answer 4

Jeez o' flip!!! I've never seen more disinformation on any one subject in all my life.

Tiffany, my child. If your hubby is speeding up for an obstruction on the tracks he should be boiled in oil. I can't believe, if he in fact works for an American railroad, that he would tell you this. If you live in California (or New York), and he is gone for a week and tells you he caught a lite engine to Chicago, and since he wasn't moving any traffic was therefore not paid trying to explain away a short half, you are ready to make an investment in oceanfront property in Arizona.

Long answer short. Trains can range from just over 200 tons, for a single locomotive or up to 23,000 (yes, 5 digits) tons for a "unit" train of grain or coal or other "bulk" commodity.

Where I finished ny 35 year career as a locomotive engineer, trains average 9,000 to 10,000 tons, operating on descending grade of 2.2%

To put this into perspective, this is like putting three, WWII US naval destroyers on roller bearings, and sending them away.

Once a train is moving, even the relatively light weight passenger or mass transit trains, it takes a lot of energy to stop it.

There is but one system of propulsion, and four braking systems, encompassing train brakes (on the cars), locomotive brake (often referred to as 'independent' brake, or the "jam" for we dinosaurs), dynamic brake and hand brake (this is like the parking brake on your car).

A tonnage train, travelling at a speed of 50 MPH, needs six miles to make a nice, smooth controlled stop. The truth is, even at a much slower speed, if a locomotive engineer can see you, it is already too late to stop.

He or she will try with all their being to stop, but you will be just as dead if you get in the train's way.

We cannot stop for you. No hoghead is gunning for you. The train is completely impartial. No train has ever gone looking for a victim. There is only ONE reason that the general public dies on any railroad right of way. They either don't look, disregard, defeat or go around grade crossing protection.

Tell someone to tell someone to pass this along. Every grade crossing fatality is preventable, but the burden lies with the public.

Trains don't come looking for you. You must put yourself in their way.

On behalf of train crews world wide, LOOK, LISTEN and LIVE.

Answer 5

ha ha finally a question i can answer and feel smart, my husband works for CSX .. a train company.. anyways the reason they don't is because there load is extremely too heavy to stop n go, did u know that if a conductor see's a car stalled on the tracks he speeds up so the hit will lessen his chances of derailing and knocking out a whole city!!! serious if he slows down the chances of spilling some dangerous stuff is 60% and if he speeds up it's like 35% serious!!!

Answer 6

And a lot safer for the motorists.

It is all about money. Human life aint worth what it costs to build a bridge or overpass over the rail tracks. With the population expansion, more of you need to try beating a locomotive across the tracks at a crossing.

Thank you for trying.

Answer 7

Apparently you've never tried stopping a locomotive? =) The trains can not stop because they need propulsion to keep them moving. I live in a coal mining area, which means lots of train tracks. If the trains had to stop at every intersection, they'd never get anywhere!

Answer 8

Do you know how much time and distance it takes for a train to stop? It's a long ways, and they're much bigger than any car or truck out there.

Answer 9

same a big trucks, people have to obe the signs and ete and they weigh alot more then a car or person and very hard to stop way at once check the books

Answer 10

because the train weighs about as much as 1000 of your car, not to mention that they are driving with metal wheels on metal rails...not much traction to stop 1000 tons of rolling steel