Who cares, OVERKILL..........

Why does there have to be a press release on every enforcement with these RR? How has the Village Board, mayor or Chief not cancelled some these details

Another school shooting close to our area. Normal Community HS, 14yr fires off rounds, no one hit.

When is the Police Chief finally going to present the report to the village on the safety concerns with this crossing? It is getting downright pathetic watching the priorities of this department to issue tickets, instead of working to upgrade the tracks to ACTUALLY make them safer. It is becoming clear that issuing revenue-generating tickets, is a higher priority to John Konopek than the safety of the residents in town.

Combined with the disaster of a policy to install rifles in schools, this chief has lost the trust of many residents to perform the basic duties of his job.

Sounds like the CN needs to do something about THEIR crossing and THEIR Insurance Regulations/Standards and THEIR load widths and THEIR train speeds and THEIR signalization and THEIR signage before we get down to OUR enforcement. Seems backwards that OUR enforcement is a benefit to all of THEIR issues. The cost of Excessive Time spent on enforcement should be a cost directly to CN and not to the driving public via inflated citations. Our police have the safety of our citizens as a top priority but it seems that CN is the excessive complainant requiring these over blown actions ($) by others -- the good people of Plainfield. If someone complains to the police about a safety issue, no matter how minor/sever, it is the sworn duty for the Police to respond with action. If we want the Ticket marathon to be reduced then CN needs to minimize pushing the police to act---for something that ultimately benefits CN Insurance Costs. Again, IT"S A CN ISSUE to resolve.

So you are saying that CN calls the police dispatch directly reporting this safety issue? That is the only instance that would require an officer to respond to the call. Any other instance comes down to an administrative decision, the PD and village just need a backbone. The village is not legally required to do these crack downs. That is just a flat out lie. The village is making $. If it was truly about safety they would be there directing traffic or at the very least hand out warnings.

I guess you miissed the first couple articles were Plainfield PD and CN were talking group photos celebrating their achievements at theses crack downs. CN isn't going to resolve anything as long as the village does the dirty work.

There has to be some kind of kickback for the Village, this detail occurs every 3-4 weeks.

Um, it's not just Plainfield that feels like doing this. Plainfield has jurisdiction over traffic on 126...so...

"In conjunction with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad Police, Canadian National Railroad Police, CSX Railroad Police and the Union Pacific Railroad Police,"...

Geez I've never heard so much whining over nothing!

@ Tim S--interconnect an additional signal, w/photo enforcement abilities, with traffic signal Controller @ 59 = good idea ; at CN's cost and maintance. Violation $ go to us?

The "radar" type controller recently installed at Essington and 126 is proving to a great tool for this application. If this technology can control 70MPH traffic exiting Rt 55 it should be able to do a flow prediction/anticipation at the tracks and signal advancing vehicular traffic properly. Again, CN's Tab.

In my opinion, these enforcement details are needed? People are continually forewarned, multiple tickets get issued every time, yet people are still stopping on the tracks! I live on Rt 126, so I drive across those tracks nearly every day. Like everyone else, I get stopped by the lights, but am smart enough to know where to stop and if I can get across the tracks to a safe, and legal, position. Quite often, however, I see people stopped, not only in striped area, but many are literally sitting ON THE TRACKS! These people deserve to be written tickets to make them think about the stupidity of their actions. (A ticket seems like a better alternative to a toe tag!)

So go to city hall and do a Freedom of Information for all railroad projects the city has to sign off on. It's a very legal like deal. Then file charges on the cops for allowing massive theft (At least $1.5 million I see in ICC records) of public paid for signals.

Plainfield must be circle jerk central for the state railroad cops who will use these numbers while the RRs are being sued for deaths/injuries elsewhere.

The equipment ---a corrupt us supreme court put the tab on the tax-payers decades ago ---NO BIDS and overcharges out the ying yang.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/notices/n4510743t1.htm

Dear Mr. P

Thank you for your interest in railway-highway crossing safety. Each state is required to track the dollars spent on railway-highway crossing projects and also report on the effectiveness of the program. This is required per the United States Code, Section 130.

If you would like to review a report to see which projects were completed, please let us know which state and year you are interested in and we will send that information to you.

If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact our office. Thank you,

FHWA Office of Safety
Safety.fhwa@dot.gov


From: bob todd
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2012 1:31 AM
To: FHWA, ExecSecretariat (FHWA)
Subject: Railroad crossing fraud

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/legsregs/directives/notices/n4510743t1.htm

Could someone explain why most state STIPs for their share of the railroad crossing budget is a fricking lump sum with NO statement of railroad crossing numbers or projects???

$220 million and the FHWA has no clue where it goes. No wonder people are murdered by trains EVERYDAY at unprotected crossings. What the railroads don't steal in overcharges the state people steal because NOBODY keeps tabs.

Tim/JeffK/Conservative ad naseum: you don't represent the values of the citizens of the Village of Plainfield. The police do good work. You are a continuing embarrassment to our community and deserve our ridicule rather than our support.