CLAREMORE, Okla. — 40 trains, on average, move through Claremore every day sometimes backing up traffic, causing wrecks, and delaying emergency services.
It’s the reason federal grant money is heading to town to find a solution to the problem.
2 News Oklahoma visited the city manager after listening to neighbor’s concerns.
While the Happy Dashery has only been open about 10 months in downtown Claremore, it’s owner Stephanie Bynum has been in the city her whole life.
“Claremore is the ultimate epic small town,” said Stephanie Bynum.
A small town, built on the railways, with Union Pacific and BNSF both operating tracks through town.
“We’re used to them, but still you can’t plan for them because there’s so many a day,” said Bynum.
The city says about 40 trains a day are coming through Claremore and many through the heart of the city.
It’s the reason they applied for a Federal Railroad Administration grant to see if it’s possible to bypass some of the crossings and determine how much it would cost.
“Everybody wants to see it happen,” said Claremore City Manager John Feary. “The tracks and the road are at the same grade so if a train is going through traffic doesn’t move. It increases the chance for accidents.”
Feary says public safety is top of mind when they start to study the feasibility of a work-around specifically on Blue Starr Drive.
“It’s a life safety issue,” said Feary. “Hospital access, ambulances, fire, public safety, we have documented instances throughout the history of Claremore of people in ambulances trying to get to hospitals and be stopped by a train.”
The grant is $424,000 that’ll pay for an engineer and architect to come in and provide options. The city manager says along with the federal grant money they’ll chip in about $100,000 for the study as well.
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“For the first time we’re taking a serious hard look at it and we’ve got some real dollars to do that,” said Feary.
Bynum says the grant money is welcome news and could be a step toward economic development is people aren’t delayed by the trains.
“People coming in and studying and trying to fix it for our town would be great,” said Bynum.
The city manager said when the study is finished, they would apply for a second round of federal grant money for the construction. That’s if it’s financially feasible to potentially take cars over the tracks at Blue Starr Drive. He said that could easily cost $50-$100 million.
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