Photo provided by New Paris Fire Department.

News Release

NEW PARIS — Some Elkhart County officials are speaking out against Norfolk Southern about the increased number of trains blocking traffic in and around New Paris.

Elkhart County Commissioner Brad Rogers and Jackson Township Fire Chief Bill Dunlap issued a joint statement Monday and said the issue has become a very real public safety hazard as emergency vehicles are now forced to divert around blocked crossings on an increasing basis.

The railroad crossings at CR 29, CR 42, CR 146, CR 142, CR 23, CR 46, and CR 50 in New Paris have been repeatedly blocked for many hours at a time by trains operated by the Norfolk Southern Corp, according to the news release.

These are essentially all of the crossings in New Paris. This has resulted in emergency responders being unable to access emergencies on the other side of the tracks in a reasonable timeframe.

Dunlap, of the Jackson Township Fire Department, says that in multiple cases, ambulance or fire crews had to travel to the open SR 15 and US 6 crossings to get across and go north again to New Paris. This is not acceptable from a response time perspective.

“The CR 146 crossing is about a 1/8 mile from our station and that is our main lifeline to our western coverage area. This includes the portion of Union Township that we are contracted to provide ambulance service for. This is affecting more than just Jackson Township,” noted Dunlap.

“This is a life safety issue and I’m very concerned about the ability of the New Paris fire and ambulance crews being prevented from responding to emergencies in New Paris. The public is tired of being held hostage by these trains.” said Rogers.

According to the news release, public pressure placed upon Norfolk Southern previously by the city of Goshen and Elkhart County has resulted in the blocking of crossings in the Goshen/Dunlap area to be reduced.

However, this issue has now spread to Elkhart County’s more rural areas as the railroad has pushed the stopped trains down the line. The rural communities may not be as densely populated as the cities, but population density doesn’t matter when emergency service personnel are called upon to save lives and assist.

Local leadership calls on Norfolk Southern to either stop parking trains on trackage that includes these crossings or to break trains that are forced to stop and wait at these crossings.

“Our hope is that Norfolk Southern responds to the community by ceasing the blocking of crossings in the New Paris area,” says Rogers.

“If not, we are contemplating what additional actions we have available, as the railroad’s management of this continued issue has been more than poor.”

The public is encouraged to report blocked crossings to the Federal Rail Administration: https://www.fra.dot.gov/blockedcrossings/