ROSSFORD – Police Chief Glenn Goss just wants to get the attention of rail giant CSX, and he’s hoping a
$500 ticket for letting trains block crossings for hours will do so.
City police issued a misdemeanor summons for blocking a crossing on Glenwood Road between Bruns and Buck
roads to a CSX train earlier this week.
The case went before Perrysburg Municipal Court Thursday and notification has started its way up the CSX
chain of command starting with the terminal superintendent in Walbridge.
Goss said the action was a result of "a lot of citizen complaints from people who live near the rail
tracks."
While standing trains have been a problem for years, it has been worse in the past several months, he
said. That included one in early May that blocked the road for 27 hours.
The problem is worst at the Glenwood crossing, but blockages also occur on Lime City Road, just north of
Buck Road.
That causes more than inconvenience for residents, also diverting school buses and emergency vehicles.

All have to turn around and make their way through longer, alternate routes, sometimes having to go onto
I-75 just to get across town.
The problem is that trains have to wait until there is room in the Stanley Yard in Walbridge for them to
enter, the police chief said. So they sit.
Goss understands that living with rails means blocked crossings at times, and he’s not going to start
ticketing every train that blocks a crossing for more than five minutes, as the city ordinance allows
him to do.
Goss said he’d just like to sit down and discuss other options with CSX, whether it’s separating cars to
keep intersections clear, or moving trains to a siding while they wait.
"We’re not suggesting blocking crossings in other jurisdictions," Goss said.
CSX communications director Carla Groleau issued a statement Thursday on the situation: "CSX
appreciates the patience of our neighbors as we return to the high levels of service as safely and
swiftly as possible and focus on reducing blocked crossings in the communities in which we operate.
"While congestion on our network is easing after such an exceptional winter, we continue to have
surges of traffic impacting some of our processing yards and causing isolated congestion on our main
lines. Operations through the greater Chicago gateway remain fluid, although they are not quite back to
normal levels."