This past summer, CSX alerted the village of Liverpool that it plans to temporarily close the railroad crossing on Old Liverpool Road.
CSX wouldn’t say when and wouldn’t say how long Old Liverpool Road might be closed for repairs.
After discussing the situation at the July 30 village board meeting, Liverpool Mayor Gary White contacted 4th District County Legislator Judy Tassone and asked her to make the county Department of Transportation aware of the CSX plans. Old Liverpool Road is a county road.
“The county DOT wasn’t getting anywhere with CSX,” Tassone said last week, “so I met with the staff of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer to let him know about the problem.”
During the week of Oct. 9, Tassone and a handful of local mayors met with Schumer personally at the Hanley Federal Building, down city. Turns out other area municipalities are also running into brick walls with CSX, a Class 1 Railroad which runs freight trains up and down the East Coast.
“Several of the mayors spoke up and said they couldn’t get anything done with CSX,” Tassone said. “Sen. Schumer said he’ll look into it.”
We’ll see how much influence Schumer may have with the Federal Railroad Administration. And we’ll see how much influence the FRA itself may wield over a big railroad like CSX. The FRA is one of 10 agencies within the U.S. Department of Transportation concerned with intermodal transportation.
In any case, it’s good to see our representatives from both sides of the political spectrum working together. Tassone is one of the county’s most prominent Republicans, while Schumer is one of the nation’s most prominent Democrats.
Trucks to be affected
At the July 30 meeting of the village board of trustees, Mayor Gary White said the plan could create difficulties for drivers of commercial vehicles.
“If CSX closes down Old Liverpool Road to make repairs at the crossing, it could be a problem because commercial vehicles are now banned from the [Onondaga Lake] Parkway,” White said.
The Parkway, also known as Route 370, is the main thoroughfare connecting the city of Syracuse with the northern suburbs, but Old Liverpool Road is now the favored byway for commercial vehicles. Commercial traffic was banned from the Parkway last year after several buses and trucks collided with the CSX railroad bridge that passes over the road at a height of 10 feet, nine inches.
Why CSX?
The CSX railroad got its three-letter name from two source RR systems and one colloquial abbreviation.
The C stands for the Chessie System, Inc. The S represents the Seaboard System RR. And the X is a shortened for of “express.”
One positive candidate
Everybody’s fed up with the sheer volume of negative advertising in the 24thCongressional race. But are voters angry enough to turn their displeasure into a vote for positive change?
If you’re truly saddened and sickened by the nasty name-calling you should consider voting for the one candidate who refuses to indulge in such shameful media mud-slinging.
Do what I’m going to do on Nov. 6, and cast your ballot for Green Party congressional candidate Ursula Rozum
Steps and pepperoni
The Village Mall at 304 First St. had a new steel stairway installed during the first week of October, after its old cement stairs had collapsed.
Gino & Joe’s opened Oct. 15, at the corner of Old Liverpool Road and Electronics Parkway; 451-3177.
