Why can trains run only at night or avoid operating during rush hours?
BNSF operates about 1,400 trains every 24 hours through more than 3,000 communities in 28 states and two Canadian Provinces. We have had some people ask us not to run trains during rush hours, and others who don’t want trains to run during lunch hours, and many others who don’t want to hear trains running at night. We cannot deliver the billions of tons of freight we haul each year for the benefit of all those communities under those kinds of conditions anymore than our interstate highway system could be shut down during those same hours. Our economy would cease to function. The real problem you’ve identified here is not with train schedules, but with conflict between two different modes of transportation. When most communities built their roads across rail lines, they had the option of grade separating the roadway over, or under, the track. Most chose the less expensive option, which was to build the road at grade with the tracks. Unfortunately, that leaves motorists in potential conf
