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Walkway Over Dangerous Train Crossing Is Dead After Norfolk Southern Backtracks on Funds, Mayor Says
https://www.propublica.org/article/norfolk-southern-train-crossing-hammond-indiana-school-pedestrian-overpassTopher Sanders
The mayor of Hammond, Indiana, says the rail company had promised to help pay for a pedestrian bridge after ProPublica and InvestigateTV documented dozens of children crawling through trains to get to school. The company denies making this pledge.
Children cross over a parked freight train blocking their route to school in 2022 in Hammond, Indiana. The mayor says train company Norfolk Southern is backing out of a promise to partly finance the construction of a pedestrian overpass. Jamie Kelter Davis for ProPublica
The mayor of Hammond, Indiana, says train company Norfolk Southern is reneging on a promise to partly finance the construction of a pedestrian overpass at a dangerous rail crossing that was the subject of a ProPublica investigation. And without the funding, he added, the project is dead.
Officials began pursuing the overpass in 2023, after the news organization and its reporting partner, InvestigateTV, documented dozens of children crawling through, over and under trains that blocked them from getting to and from school in the city.
Hammond is a nearby suburb of Chicago, the busiest train hub in the nation. At the time, the area served as a kind of parking lot for Norfolk Southern's trains as they idled between two busy intersections -- a growing problem in Hammond and railroad communities like it across the country as trains get longer.
After publication, Norfolk Southern's CEO at the time, Alan Shaw, called Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott to discuss solutions, including a pedestrian overpass. The mayor said Shaw committed to paying the full cost of the project. A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern told ProPublica the company never made any such commitment.
. . .
Officials began pursuing the overpass in 2023, after the news organization and its reporting partner, InvestigateTV, documented dozens of children crawling through, over and under trains that blocked them from getting to and from school in the city.
Hammond is a nearby suburb of Chicago, the busiest train hub in the nation. At the time, the area served as a kind of parking lot for Norfolk Southern's trains as they idled between two busy intersections -- a growing problem in Hammond and railroad communities like it across the country as trains get longer.
After publication, Norfolk Southern's CEO at the time, Alan Shaw, called Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott to discuss solutions, including a pedestrian overpass. The mayor said Shaw committed to paying the full cost of the project. A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern told ProPublica the company never made any such commitment.
. . .