Waiting for a train

My long, tortured history of bad timing and frustration with travel and trains in Baton Rouge is a secret to exactly no one. Wednesday morning added a new chapter.

I had a 7:30 a.m. meeting with convention and tourism guru Butch Spyridon at the Bally's Hotel coffee shop, and by 7:10 was within eyesight of it—maybe 500 yards out with 20 minutes to spare. Life was good.

Then my world, and that long black and white gate, came crashing down. Red lights flashing, bell clanging and then 20 seconds of the short, ear-piercing warning blasts from a four-engine train. Four engines raised some alarms, but, with 20 minutes to spare, let the train and the good times roll. No worries.

Except the train kept rolling ... and rolling ... and rolling. Until 7:25, when it did something worse: it slowed and then stopped. Dead stop. A Berlin wall of tankers and hoppers between me, Bally's and British Breakfast tea nirvana.

Options fading, the call was a hasty U-turn retreat, doubling back down River Road in search of a train-free crossing. Except the train was also blocking the crossing at Water Street. And at Oklahoma Street. The West McKinley crossing was clear, but traffic was backed up onto River Road. Same story at West Roosevelt and on Aster. Freedom didn't ring until reaching the LSU campus and Skip Bertman Drive—nearly 2.5 snaking, stop-and-go miles from where this odyssey began.

Keep in mind, this was during the morning commute hour, and this train—carrying hazardous chemicals, economic development and jobs—kept hundreds of people from getting to their jobs for far more than the alleged 20-minute law.

I finally rolled into Bally's at 7:47 a.m., roughly 37 minutes and 15 Jimmy Buffett songs after the gate first came down—which is the only thing that kept me sane through the ordeal.

Why it matters: Is this the biggest problem facing Baton Rouge? No. Still, it's simply another buoy downtown must navigate if it has serious aspirations of becoming a live-work-play destination. Right now, just getting to the work part is a challenge.

We tried: Louisiana actually has a rule for this, and it's mostly toothless.

• State law makes it illegal for a train to block a crossing for more than 20 minutes, with fines that climb the longer the blockage goes into overtime.
• Courts nationwide have spent the past few years gutting versions of that law state by state, ruling federal authority over railroads swallows the states' right to enforce it.
• The U.S. Supreme Court let Ohio's version die without comment in 2024, leaving that logic standing.

Waving the white flag: Louisiana's own transportation department has more or less conceded the point.

• DOTD has said railroads fall outside the state's jurisdiction to police.
• There's a law. There's just nobody positioned to make it mean anything.

The irony: This is a love-hate affair, as I'm more than $1,000 in on an On30 model-train obsession.

The bottom line: Attorney and developer Charles Landry apparently has pull with Canadian National—he did get a crossing for the proposed LSU Arena without the city having to give one up—so maybe we can put him on the case.

—JR Ball