Ossoff: ‘We Have Been Under-Investing in our Infrastructure’

ATLANTA — While a new report on long trains found railroads, federal agencies and Congress should coordinate actions to address “heightened safety challenges and operational demands,” one federal lawmaker from Georgia said more infrastructure investment is needed.

During a media briefing on a tax credit intended to attract grocery stores to Georgia communities and support Peach State farmers, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Georgia, pointed to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which some call the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He called the measure “the most significant investment in America’s infrastructure since the [President Dwight] Eisenhower administration.”

“We’ve known for decades that we have been under-investing in our infrastructure — transportation, freight rail, airports, seaports, our energy grid, our water systems,” Ossoff said in response to a question from Railfanning.org News Wire.

“And as we speak right now, upgrades are happening across the state of Georgia to rail infrastructure and to other vital transportation, including efforts to deal with blocked railroad crossings,” Ossoff said.

Blocked railroad crossings have long been a concern to local and federal officials. State and federal authorities have moved to increase spending. In Georgia, for example, the Georgia Department of Transportation awarded more than $17.5 million in July to build a bridge and related approaches over a CSX Transportation line in Fulton County.

Officials also deferred the construction of two bridges and approaches under a Norfolk Southern Railway line in Gwinnett County. Another project to build more than a mile of bridge and approaches over a Norfolk Southern Railway line in Bibb County was withdrawn.

“For some communities in Georgia, these railroad crossings and the long blockages and delays mean that families can’t go and pick up their kids from school because they’re sitting for two or three hours at a blocked railroad crossing,” Ossoff said.

“It might mean that a laboring mother in an ambulance on the way to give birth at the hospital is stuck and unable to go and get the care they need,” Ossoff added. “It might mean that a stroke or a heart attack survivor or victim may not be able to go and get the emergency care that they need. So this is a big deal for communities across Georgia.”

In response to the finding, railroads and the AAR have pushed back, saying trains are safe at any length.