UmustBKidding said:
As I remember the discussions were very serious. UP told them a figure that I think was near 100 million dollars to do and if they were serious warm up their check book. Things became less serious after that.
Also need to remember until 1969 the state constitution required railroads that came within 3 miles of the county seat were required to route through city and have a depot. Likely why HTC built through Bryan and the reason that College Station exists and is name as such.
The tracks predate all these roads where crossings are desired. To railroads any crossing is a huge liability. This is part of the reason UP will not normally create a crossing without closing at least that many or more. On top of that crossings in quiet zones are an even bigger liability, and COCS wants the whole city to be a quiet zone.
Railroads and not easy to deal with, a real PIA, but my dealings with them has been far more civil than any dealings I have had with COCS. Maybe they are made for each other.
The railroad crossing closings are a relatively recent thing, no? It didn't seem like until the early 2000s that they got picky with the crossings, and I think it was the late 2000s when a bunch north of downtown Bryan got closed. Looking at College Station crossings, the only "new" crossing in the last 20 or so years was Drake.
Even so, the railroad has definitely gotten the better deal when it comes to CS crossings. South of the university and north of Drake, the new crossings have either been 1:1 (Luther Street West -> Holleman Drive West; N. Graham Road --> Rock Prairie Road W.), two for ones (Wade Road & Straub Road --> Greens Prairie Trail), and then they took out the big Harvey Mitchell Parkway crossing several years ago, the only crossing to have five lanes crossing (the merging lane from Wellborn being the fifth).
The plan is to close Cain Road as part of the deal...at least they didn't close Cain Road yet while dragging their feet on the new crossing.