Southern California

Dangerous SoCal Railroad Crossing Targeted to Close

A subcommittee of the Metropolitan Transit Authority on Wednesday agreed to eliminate a railroad crossing which Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian said may be the most dangerous in Southern California.

There has been a 10-year effort to close the crossing at Doran Street and San Fernando Road, just at the border of LA and Glendale, which is next to a propane refilling plant and the 134 Freeway.

"The road, the propane, the river, the tracks, the limited access currently - it is the worst. And we're overdue to get this thing resolved," Najarian said.

The mayor said there have been scores of accidents.

"I've been called to the scene where there was a pedestrian strike of someone trying to cross and the engineer said, 'I just couldn't see them,'" he said.

But to close the crossing, the MTA will spend millions building a second overpass nearby at Broadway and Brazil streets over the railroad tracks, which will require the condemning of several businesses including a cement plant and the new home of Habitat for Humanity.

"We feel devastated," said Sonja Yates of Habitat for Humanity in the San Gabriel Valley. "The loss of this location is a major loss of funding for our affordable housing mission."

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Neighborhood groups which had expressed concern about how the MTA would go about the issue endorse the proposal, saying it will not just make their neighborhoods safer, but will reduce horn noise from train traffic.

This is the same route targeted by the High Speed Rail Commission, meaning upgrades would be required in any case to keep auto traffic from ever having to cross a railroad track along that intersection.

The subcommittee's decision now goes to the full board of the MTA.
 

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