A chorus of angry truck horns at the blocked rail crossing along Riverside Drive in Bethlehem blare at the cars blocking the crossing. It’s unlikely, however, that the railroad engineer astride twin 3,000-horse-power diesels can hear their rage, let alone move without a green signal allowing him to clear the intersection.

It’s a frequent scene at Bethlehem’s busiest railroad at-grade crossing, formally identified as 361717F, which crosses Riverside Drive just west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge. Other lesser-used grade crossings run through festival grounds by the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, then extend north along the Monocacy Creek.

Every day, according to one set of statewide figures, several dozen freight trains pass through the Riverside Drive crossing. A May filing with the federal Department of Transportation sets that number at 14 trains daily.

Eastbound tankers and double-stacked rail cars often linger there, blocking the crossing far longer than the five minutes allowed under Pennsylvania law

In one 12-hour period in late in November, eastbound Norfolk-Southern trains twice blocked Riverside Drive, each for more than 25 minutes – unusual but not unprecedented. On the evening of Dec. 8, another blocked the roadway for approximately 37 minutes.

It is not clear how seriously state officials view such traffic delays. The mandated fine currently is $25 with no provision for repeat offenses. During four successive sessions, a Langhorne state representative’s bill to fine and even jail repeat offenders failed to gain traction.

Enforcement data for the Riverside Drive crossing was not immediately available. “You’re welcome to file a Right-to-Know (request) and we’ll look into it,” saild a clerk in the city solicitor’s office.

Getting that information may not matter.

Rail operations nationwide are regulated by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), which claims precedence over state and local legislation. One federal provision explicitly allows crossing stoppages due to safety concerns. When litigated, rail companies, in most cases, have successfully claimed themselves exempt from other than federal law.

Earlier this year, a divided Ohio Supreme Court dismissed municipal court charges filed against railroad operator CSX Transportation for encroaching on federal authority.

The railroad administration does maintain a website inviting public complaints about the 200,000 grade crossings nationwide. Until recently, such reports were used only for statistical purposes. Under a pilot program authorized by President Joe Biden’s new Infrastructure Law, though, the FRA now will analyze such submissions for three years prior to issuing a report to Congress.

A 2021 federal infrastructure bill, addressing crossing delays, passed the House, but failed in the Senate. A 2022 bipartisan bill focused principally on safety improvement. Competitive grants totaling $573 million were authorized for improvements to rail grade improvements.

Accident reports filed with the FRA for the Riverside Drive crossing from 2010 to 2022 listed three accidents, with exclusively property damage totaling $7,000.

Riverside Drive passes through three jurisdictions: the city of Bethlehem; the borough of Fountain Hill; and Salisbury Township. The road is classified on municipal maps as a private roadway, extending west of the Hill-to-Hill Bridge to its dead end at manufacturing and rehab facilities, as well as at the work-release annex to the Lehigh County Jail.

None of the municipalities seem to be interested in adopting the road.

“It is full of potholes,” says James Leverndier, Salisbury’s public works director.

Lehigh County maintains the roadway west of the Northampton County line. The city handles the section ending at the Hill-to-Bridge Third Street ramp.

The road’s “private” status might matter. A spokesman for the FRA says the administration weighs conditions at public and private roadways differently, without elaborating.

While Riverside Drive’s designation is “private,” the crossing itself is designated as “public,” according to FRA records, which are based upon submissions by the state DOT and railroads.

Laura Kukendall is warden at the Community Correction Center where Riverside Drive dead ends. Conditions now are better than in past years, she says, when delays could last as long as two hours.

Annex staff once used a private shortcut, through a warehouse parking lot and then across tracks to Riverside Drive, until it was blocked by the property owner. That route, if open, might no longer work as longer trains could block the western crossing as well.

Trains have gotten longer, by 25 percent from 2008 to 2019, according to limited data submitted to the Government Accounting Office.

“We do have a number to call.” Kukendall says, when trains block the crossing.

Does calling that number make a difference?

“No,” she responds.

One bold proposal would have eliminated the Riverside crossing entirely.

Consultants for St. Luke’s Hospital designed a back entrance to the hospital. It would have required rerouting several miles of railroad tracks. Leverndier, now with Salisbury Township, was briefed while with Fountain Hill. He recalls that Norfolk-Western was not interested, even with St. Luke’s offering to cover all costs.

The proposal was quietly abandoned.

For emergency responders, the Riverside crossing, like others nationwide, has a blue sign bearing an 800 number and crossing code listing under the Emergency Notification System. In an emergency, though, where seconds, not minutes, may affect outcome, calling to clear any crossing can take precious time.

Still, Ian Dodson, fire chief for Eastern Salisbury Fire Department, recalls only one medical emergency when the blocked crossing caused a delay. Whenever fire or ambulance crews are dispatched to the area, he said, a call is placed simultaneously to Norfolk-Southern, asking that the intersection be cleared.

“We have good relations,” he adds.

A May article in Land Line, a publication for trucking owner-operators, reported that 18,801 incidents involving blocked crossings were reported at 5,773 crossings nationwide. Pennsylvania did not make the top five states reporting problems. For truckers, idling engines rob money out of their own pockets, and time when delivery times today often are calculated to the minute.

Twenty-four states have rules on blocked crossings, according to Land Lines. Most states were said to have thresholds of 20 minutes, more generous than allowed in Pennsylvania.

Trains halted across Riverside Drive are almost exclusively eastbound, with engines idling several hundred yards past the Riverside crossing, blocking traffic.

Why not halt before the crossing? A spokesperson for Norfolk-Southern explained that all trains must stop immediately in front of a red traffic signal and there is just such a signal east of the Riverside Drive crossing.

“With that said,” he added, “we never want to inconvenience anyone with a stopped train. We do work hard to minimize these types of delays.”

Learn more

The Federal Blocked Crossing Incident Report can be found at https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/

A YouTube video, showing a train passing through the Riverside Drive crossing, can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nSZtIbaD3ohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nSZtIbaD3o

American Association of Railroads operational proposals to reduce grade grossing impact is here: https://www.aar.org/article/how-railroads-collaborate-with-stakeholders-to-reduce-grade-crossing-impacts/