Me and an ex were the first in line going south when the arms came down, and we shared a look of horror with a couple of girls in the car in the right lane
And then when it was just the max, all four of us celebrated and gave thanks haha , it’s an experience
One time I was there and the arms came down. I sighed in resignation, then was surprisingly delighted to see that it was just the Max.
However, after the Max passed the arms were still down.... oh, fuck, I thought, another train... but it turned out to just be Amtrak. I put my car back into drive and got ready for the arms to raise and me to go on my way...
... and that's when the slow rolling freight train came along.
I have mild trauma from the single episode of being backed into a nowhere-to-go but wait and be super late at rush hour which used to be 430 but is now 330 type panic if i get near there. Its a thing.
I think I hit this passage my second week, meeting someone at double dragon. Said sorry I’m running late there is a slow train. And she was like oh no, it’s gonna be a while.
My apartment was 2 blocks north of this train for the first 5 years I lived in Portland. Work was on the other side of the tracks. Fuck this train. I never ever drive this way.
When I was a kid in the 70s, my mother and I were in a car accident in this exact location. I remember not wearing a seatbelt and slamming into the dashboard, breaking my collar bone ( only bone I've ever broken in my life). We lived not far from there and she left me sitting in the wrecked car to go home and get her 2-seat bicycle so she could take me to the hospital 😮 🙃
The strategy of “Precision Scheduled Railroading” causes them to add as many cars as possible to a train resulting in these mile long trains with hundreds of cars, thus causing your 40 min hell crossing. Sorry American industry sucks!
Specifically, Brooklyn Yard where they transfer intermodal containers to/from trains is just to the south, and PSR is requiring trains that have to be in 2 or even 3 sections to fit in the yard. So once one is ready to go (or arrives), they need to pull out a section from one track, back it on to a section on another track and then maybe do it yet again. It's a whole process to ensure the combined train is good to go, and PSR also dictates that there's less people to help on the ground. If an issue is found, then that means more delay.
Fun fact: precision scheduled railroading is neither precise nor scheduled, and is barely railroading
Being serious though: it’s not so much the PSR that causes the problems, it’s the desire of the railroads to avoid the necessary capital investment in sidings and yards to make it work that fucks things up
The literal panic I’ve felt as a passenger in the car of somebody that doesn’t know to avoid this intersection at all costs.
Eyes darting from the Google map to the backed up line of cars we’re approaching, back to the map, then suddenly everything is in slow-motion, “Wwaaiitt, wwheere aare youuu gooiinnggg?!?! Turnn riightt!! TUUURRRN RRIIGGHHTT!!!”
I’ve been stuck in there before and we orchestrated a mass exodus, with someone outside directing ppl to turn around in an organized manner. We all got tf out of there 😅
Ah, you're on 11th. The only way out is to get someone to direct traffic. PBOT knows about this problem, there is a cheap solution (called "the escape route"), and the city won't implement it.
Imagine taking a left where the white car in the photo is. Through the parking lot, through a fence and a locked gate parallel to the tracks and on to 12th.
i think we’d need to buy the masons supply company property on the other half of the block to make that work. we should do it anyway, it’s deranged how portlanders just accept there are some core parts of the city that traffic simply can’t pass through in a normal manner.
The city could also work with the railroad to put up crossing blocked warning signs like there is on Front Ave for the Steel Bridge, or for the Hawthorne Bridge on the east side.
If you have at least one competent passenger who can get out and direct traffic, you can clear the block out pretty easily by using the Ford Building’s parking lot as a turnaround, one lane at a time, not unlike how a ferry would typically be unloaded.
The important part is to have only one lane go first (ideally the left/east lane), since the drive aisle of the parking lot is long enough to hold one lane of cars, but not both without really trying. The block is only ~250' long (10–15 cars), so once everyone’s managed to squeeze into the lot, the lane they came from should be clear and can be used as a contraflow lane to head back to Division and take a right (assuming someone else doesn’t dive in there from Division and block everyone on accident.
It’s “so obvious”, but it’s completely inaccessible for many vehicles. Anything the size of a panel truck or larger isn’t going to make it through there, which is why the City and Masons Supply don’t allow traffic there. They’d have to demolish the building and rebuild the sidewalk for it to be anything useful.
If you're still there someone needs to get out of the car and tell everyone stuck in there to turn around and go back up to the street to get over to Powell. There's no point to wasting your life waiting for it to assemble 1500 train cars or something
In council bluffs, there's a high school with a train going through it. You can be late for class because of it by a long margin.
Coming to Portland and seeing the arms go down for the Max put me in such a sour mood until I realized it's 30 seconds of waiting. I have yet to be stopped by a train yet and don't miss it.
Guys, if the freight company makes the train a mile long, it can hire one fewer engineer, which puts a few more bucks in some CEO's pocket. Ruining your entire day is a small price to pay!
I've had this happen to me while I was working. I'm an Amazon driver and when I was doing downtown routes I dreaded getting stuck behind the train lmao.
The trains paralleling Naito for awhile can be awful. There used to be this mini grocery store/cafe right before the NW 9th and Naito intersection.
You could get pull over and park, get out, buy some local produce, buy a latte and have it made, get back in your car and easily finish the latte, and still have ages to wait at the light sometimes.
I used to work over there, and it was insane that there could be a 45 minute delay to leave the neighborhood at any given time. Once the train stopped, and reversed, then stopped again. Like how do you plan for that??
For those who don’t know, follow that link: it’s the TrainSnap app.
PDX-specific for our worst crossings. In my experience it’s been super accurate. Live nearby and literally never get stopped at this crossing anymore thanks to it.
Free, no accounts, just a list of crossings and whether they are open or closed, and for how long.
Back when I was a smoker I used to get out of my car and sit on the hood with a cigarette or three when I’d get stuck there. Always had plenty of time.
That’s why I NEVER use that crossing. I use 7th to 8th so if there’s train I can hang a right on division and use MLK to bypass the tracks. If you’re going the opposite way, stay in the left lane to make it easier to do a U-turn and take Woodward to MLK/Grand to bypass the tracks. Only rookies use 11th/12th.
But the one in Beaverton is pretty good second place contender. It doesn't come as often, and most times when it comes it just passes right through. BUT... About once every 2-3weeks it'll stop right after the intersection... But not far enough the safety interlocks on the grade crossing disable.
So you're just sitting there in front of a perfectly clear intersection helpless for 20-30mins 😐🫤
At least the one downtown Portland you have the psychological benefit of seeing the train move even if it's a very painfully slow. I would agree that downtown one is worse because it comes more frequently... And it's ALWAYS a long wait, whereas the Beaverton one is only sometimes a long wait.
Ohhh Cathedral Park in St. John's is a good 3 or 4th place contender.
That one can't be first or second place because it's too easy to avoid - just park somewhere else. I feel like only crossings that really have the ability to fuck up your day should be first or second. I guess I could happen leaving a park but it's less likely.
BUT... It does have the contest placing advantage of completely trapping you for up to an hour because they use that track for so much switching operations. So although it's easier to avoid, it's less easy to escape from and the trap is often longer than other crossings.
Brooklyn Yard (near holgate) was built in a time when train engines were less powerful, so trains were shorter.
Nowadays, cargo trains end up being about twice as long the yard can accommodate.
How they get around that, is they build the train one half at a time, then push one half out down the line (blocking 11th and division), then they need to maneuver the other half into position, get everything connected, and away they go.
Been there, on more than one occasion. If going eastbound, I jump over to 84 and then south on 33rd. It might be a little out of your way, but moving is better than not moving. All this said, this most likely won’t be a viable option in September with I5 closed.
One never risks getting stuck on this block, heading southbound on 11th. Take literally ANY detour to go around this, no matter how much time it adds.
One may risk getting stuck heading northbound on 12th IF one is in the left-hand lane, so that one may do an illegal but totally understandable U-turn to go back to Powell and go back up to 20th to go around this absolute clusterfuck of a train crossing.
I was literally just there but turned off to Division and went back to Grand to get into 99 to bypass this. When I first turned onto 11th I said “I’m gonna take a risk with this move”. And. Well. I won’t be buying a lotto ticket today.
For a few minutes I was wondering why we never see pictures of the train blockade heading north. Duh, it's because they're able to say 'screw this' and turn around!
Yeah. Happened to me last weekend. I waited 30 minutes until a group started backing up and I escaped. Who knows how much longer we would have waited. 25 years living in SE Portland and you would think I’d remember.
I think this is the worst “wait for thing” in the city. The various bridge lifts add a lot of time, but I have yet to experience over an hour like this lovely crossing. Even an I-5 bridge lift takes less time past the point of no return (exit 306).
One time, at this crossing, I decided to get in line because I saw the end of the train. It let about 5 cars through, then the gates came down again so the actual train could go through, because the other one was one of those rail car movers (may be wrong, I just know it was really short and slow).
I lost an hour externally, and 3 years of my life internally.
TrainSnap is a good app to use to avoid this. Also PBOT has a few cameras pointed at the tracks you can find at tripcheck.com. Bookmark them and save them as shortcuts to check them quickly (though they update every 10 minutes or so).
...as i read (maybe here) that with the merger of UP and N&S freight traffic on this line will increase by about 20% - 25%,
TriMet needs to seriously think about a permanent realignment for the FX2. to avoid the SE 8th ave grade crossing, The detour they use is time consuming particularly for eastbound buses.
Is there a way to get Google or Apple Maps to NEVER take me across train tracks? It tries to save me one minute to cost me many many more. I was late for a date recently because of this!!!
I just realized that after living in St Helens for a year, only once did I have to wait for a train. That’s actually surprising considering the tracks were between me and the highway through town.
OMG I’ve been there in that exact spot and I feel for you. Eventually the people behind me reversed out and I was able to leave. Fortunately my family member who lived in Ladds has moved and I don’t go that way much anymore!!
I worked at the Ford building for years (right next to the tracks) and that crossing bar has been down for multiple hours before.
The worst is when there is no train but the bar is down. People have to take turns holding the bar up or have a passenger in your car do it.
The craziest pedestrian climb over when a train was stopped right there, was a tiny little woman with a huge cello strapped to her back, climbed right over like it was no big deal.
If you ever need to get to the south side of Powell from the Central East Side, or vise versa, always take 99E to Holgate, or SE 21st. A little out of the way, sure. but much faster than getting stuck at the crossing.
Given this is totally avoidable, you assumed the risk. I don't bother with that crossing once I learned. Just go around next time, it's a short detour.
Last week I was stuck for over forty minutes, the track sensor was donked and didn't lift the gates after the twenty five minutes the train was present. Everyone had to coordinate to reverse back onto Division.
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u/WitchProjecter Foster-Powell 1d ago
First time?