North Texas community landlocked by trains

Neighbors are pleading for help after trains keep stopping on the tracks and blocking access to their neighborhood.

[SPQQK]

Strange that the county allowed the developer to build a housing community that is blocked by a train preventing emergency services access, nothing shady there with the county.

[malcolmdean]

How was this development allowed to only have one road in/out?

[lewisdoherty]

Developers build these cul-de-sac neighborhoods and people wonder why the transportation system is dysfunctional. The worse the traffic gets, the more people want these neighborhoods to keep it out adding to the problem.

[redlight]

That railroad track has been there over 100 years. Maybe vista ranch should had thought about this first?? Most contractors don’t care about anything but filling their pockets with money. I wouldn’t had bought a house there… The trains aren’t going to stop running.

[jasonchildress]

Don't blame the train, blame the community planner

[joepalmer]

From the look of those houses, that train track has been there and in use FAR longer than the homes. Maybe the developer should foot the bill for the "improvements" needed to resolve the resident's problems? I would think a second or third access would have had to been part of any initial development approval process.

[jeffpiatt]

Those railroad tracks- like all railroad tracks- have been there more than 100 years. People buying those homes should have known what they were getting into.

[keithalaird]

At one time, there were state if not federal laws that stated a railroad could not obstruct a public road grade crossing for more than 15 minutes. With healthy fines.

[itwasaliens]

Do people not do any research when buying a new home?

[matthewboatman]

Someone is going to develop the land along the new road. Thats why they finally found the funds to put in the new road.

[thomask]

Folks can also try contacting the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) and discussing whether or not they would be able to enforce the Title 49 regulation that restricts the time that a train can be on a crossing. Maybe even petition for some money to build an overpass or underpass. . . . . Just a thought.

[YouTubeAccount-hqoz]

That happened to my family back in the 80s in Southern Illinois. Until one day my grandpa and uncle uncoupled the cars and pushed them apart with a tractor. Never happened again. I miss the 80s when you could do pretty much anything and get away with it.

[kozad]

Won’t someone think of these poor upper middle-class people who chose to live in a neighborhood accessible only via a single rail crossing?!

[richc]

That access road crossing should have been a bridge originally

[ryano.]

People bought houses in a development with only one road in or out and the train is the problem? lol

[fire]

Blame the developer and planning commission for this.
The city/county seen dollar signs, so they did not care as long as the money was there.

[smpark]

Bro we gotta stop building places like this it’s pathetic

[bearinmind]

Why did the county approve a subdivision with only one access road in the first place?

[therighttoreply]

This like people complaining about the noise from an airport, , after buy a house near one, ,

[yt]

The only question I have is, were the train tracks there first were they put them in after the development? When you bought a house there did you realize what you did? It’s not an unusual situation to say after you purchased a place in our living there, not in my backyard. Now the homes will be worth even more money if they put a new road in so it in many ways is a win-win situation. I can’t believe they approved a development with the only ingress and regress over railroad tracks that are used regularly.