Inland drivers feel rail crunch

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Inland drivers feel rail crunch

TRAFFIC: Funds are scarce for easing gridlock at train crossings, but delays are growing, say officials.

Monday, October 10, 2005

By PHIL PITCHFORD / The Press-Enterprise

Just four years ago, increasing traffic congestion at railroad crossings around Riverside County meant that if you lined up all the cars that got stopped in a day, the line would stretch from Riverside to the beach town of San Juan Capistrano.

Nowadays, that row of vehicles would reach even farther, to San Diego, transportation analysts say. And without an aggressive plan for building railroad underpasses and overpasses, it will be roughly as long as the distance from Banning to Phoenix by 2030.

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The amount of time that motorists spend waiting at railroad crossings is one of the key criteria that Riverside County officials are looking at as they prioritize a long list of needed rail crossings. Funding is scarce compared with the needs, so only projects that are ranked among the most worthy are likely to be built in the next few years. The situation is no different in San Bernardino County, where transportation officials recently found that a $200 fee on each container of goods that arrives through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could alleviate what otherwise will be crushing congestion along the rail lines and highways.

About 43 percent of all imports into the United States come through those two ports, and about 75 percent of those goods leave Southern California for distribution elsewhere, according to the study commissioned by San Bernardino Associated Governments. The path to the rest of the country runs right through the Inland area. The question of how to keep the wave of imported goods from Asia from overwhelming Inland railroads and highways has consumed much of this year for business and transportation officials.

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Reach Phil Pitchford at [phone] or [e-mail]

Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/southwest/stories/PE_News_Local_D_trains10.8ef5a2c.html