A newly-proposed bill could mean high fines for trains blocking railroad crossings. It's recently been a big problem in Goshen, and several other area communities. As it stands now, rail companies can be fined up to $500 for blocking crossings with a train for longer than 10 minutes, but the new Senate Bill kicks things up a notch, assigning additional penalties up to $1,000 for 30 minutes and, after that, an additional $500 fine for every full or partial five-minute increment. That means up to $4,500 in fines for a crossing blocked for an hour. Even for a major railroad company, repeat violations could add up quickly.
