JUSTIN — It didn’t make it out of legislative committee, but House Bill 3181 may yet prove itself the city’s little engine that could.

City leaders said they needed big changes at the railroad crossings in the center of town, where operators on the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line have sometimes blocked all the crossings for one or two hours at a time.

DRC/Gary Payne

Cars drive across a section of train tracks at FM 407 and FM 156 in Justin on May 31. City and railroad officials have reached an agreement in which trains will not park and block both crossings in town at the same time.

Assistant City Manager Virginia Blevins said not only did residents complain about being unable to get where they were going, but police and fire officials were concerned about their ability to respond to emergencies when trains were parked.

“Brain cells die quickly, a house burns quickly, and people can choke to death quickly,” Blevins said. “We can’t wait until it’s convenient to move a train.”

From Gainesville to Fort Worth, much of the company’s rail line is single track, including the portion in western Denton County. Double tracks — where one train waits while another passes — lie in the middle of towns, such as Justin and Ponder, because a rail stop used to be the economic lifeline for a community.

But that’s not the case any more, even as Denton area towns grow around the rail lines. Signs at crossings up and down the line along FM156 invite drivers to call a toll-free number when a parked train has caused a problem for them.

Railroad spokesman Tim Huya said that it’s sometimes a tough call for train operators who are parked to wait for another train to pass.

If the operator breaks a train in order to open an intersection, they will end up blocking it later to reconnect. It takes about 45 minutes to do that along with the federally mandated safety inspections needed before moving down the line.

In other words, operators have a window of time when, depending on the arrival of the passing train, they will block the crossing for less time overall if they keep the train intact.

“And, of course, some [operators] are a better judge of when to do that than others,” Huya said.

Rep. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, filed HB 3181 in the middle of this past legislative session, and although time ran out on it, the measure gathered momentum. More than 50 cities passed resolutions supporting the bill, which would have given local authorities the power to fine train operators if they blocked crossings too long, Blevins said.

Parker’s spokesman, Rick Dennis, said as time ran out on the bill, Parker opted to pull it voluntarily in exchange for a pledge from Burlington Northern Santa Fe officials to work with Justin to resolve the problem.

Since then, operators have kept at least one crossing open between the east and west side of downtown Justin, opting instead to use double tracks on the edge of town.

“To this date, they have not been blocking them [the in-town crossings] all at once,” Blevins said, and the city considers that a welcome short-term solution.

Justin still seeks a long-term solution, Blevins said, because city leaders don’t want to just push the problem onto another town down the tracks.

Huya said that the railroad is considering a number of long-term options, including proposing an underpass at Trail Creek. It would be a low-water crossing, Huya said, but could work if properly designed and constructed.

Going with double tracks at FM156 is an expensive alternative, Huya said, since the ballpark figure for construction is $3 million per mile. However, having double tracks from Gainesville to Fort Worth is part of the company’s long-range plan, he said.

“Then all the trains are moving,” Huya said.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com.