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Task force targeting train track trespassers

May 21, 2014

tracksRailroad police are targeting lawbreakers on the Central Coast this week. [KCOY]

Union Pacific Railroad Special Police set up a task force focused on keeping people off the tracks and keeping drivers from going around the crossing signs when they are activated. The officers are also working to educate the public that they can only cross the tracks at pedestrian designated crossings.

“If you are not at a designated crossing for pedestrians or automobiles, at that point you are trespassing on railroad property,” said Rexford Leong, a train conductor to KCOY. “You have to wait until the gates are totally up and the lights stop flashing and the bells stop ringing. That is a good time to cross. Any other time is not a good time.”

The cost for a trespassing ticket in violation of the railroad right of way is $471.


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The mistake we make as a society is not the lack of fences, but the fact that we fight Nature. Nature is only trying to improve us by eliminating the ones that shouldn’t have offspring.


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Just another asinine fundraiser. A pedestrian crossing the tracks perpendicularly is not a safety hazard. The people that get hit by trains are almost walking along the tracks, usually with their headphones on. I don’t have a problem if they are going to ticket someone for driving across before the signals are finished, but personally I have never witnesses anyone dumb enough to do that.


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I disagree that this is a fundraiser in that I don’t think the enforcers (railroad police) will benefit from the fines. However, I do agree that it is misguided for exactly the reasons you state. I would also be more sympathetic if in-town crossings were more convenient — especially from the midtown area to the Orcutt Rd. area.


It is a hassle even with a car. On foot or on bicycle, it is a long way around if you want, for instance, to cross from Sinsheimer Park to the area by Rabobank on S. Broad. A bridge near the end of Bishop St. would go a long way to encourage crossing in a “legal” manner.


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That was my guess about this story, that it is not about the railroad track everywhere put certain one or ones that people are crossing and that maybe there has been talks about a crossing but the powers-to-be and the railroad hit a roadblock about cost, right of way, who paying what or something and so the railroad stomped away from the meetings and said fine you don’t want to talk in good faith, we will make crossing our track illegal and start writing tickets……..


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Seems pretty cut and dried. Let’s hope the uber awareness approach saves a life for the SLO Team!


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