State agencies are still making budget requests to Missouri lawmakers, a process that began weeks ago. On Tuesday, the Missouri Department of Transportation presented it proposed budget to the Senate Appropriations Committee, which includes $49 million to make safety improvements to railroad crossings across the state.
Meanwhile, not all of last year’s budget request for railroad crossings has been spent. Senate Appropriations Chairman Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, asked MoDOT Director Ed Hassinger what’s the hold up.
“Yeah, we’re making some progress, but it’s really hard to get…” Hassinger said before being interrupted by Hough: “That’s not actually the story that I got, okay? I mean, this is because the railroad folks came by a couple of weeks ago and they’re not exactly happy with the, I would say, anemic turnaround of these dollars. And we’re not either.”
Hassinger told the committee that the main obstacle is getting counties and railroads to agree on the upgrades.
“On the state (highway) system, we’ve done that — on almost all the roads we own,” he said. “The problem is these roads are owned by somebody else, so we can’t go tell them, hey, let’s put in lights.” Another committee member asked, “And they’re saying, ‘No, don’t put up (lights)?” To which Hassinger responded, “Yeah, they are.”
In June of 2022, an Amtrak passenger train crashed into a dump truck at a railroad crossing in western Missouri’s Mendon, causing the entire train to derail. Four people were killed, including the truck driver, and more than 140 people were injured. At the time, the railroad crossing at Mendon did not have signal lights, bells, or crossing arms. It has since been closed.
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