Houston, TX
Responders delayed or rerouted nearly 100 times a month.
Summary
| Metro | Houston |
|---|---|
| Railroads | Union Pacific (East End) and others |
| Open at-grade crossings | 565 |
| Vehicles a day crossing tracks at grade | 2,575,342 |
| Busiest crossing in the model | S Sgt Macario Garcia Dr (East End) (288327V): 32,000 vehicles/day, 35–50 trains/day |
| Funding | 3 awards on record (see below) |
| Data source | FRA Crossing Inventory, retrieved Oct 2, 2026. East End crossings list switching moves only in the FRA inventory, so train counts come from local reporting. |
Blockage scenario
Time
$19.5M
911,092 person-hours a year
Trade
21,233
truck-hours a year, worth $758K in driver time
Pollution
1,474 t
CO₂ from 163,345 gallons idled, like 320 cars for a year
Based on East End trains stopping 5–10 times a day for about 30 minutes (low end used).
| Blockages modeled per crossing per year | 1,820 |
|---|---|
| Vehicles stopped by one blockage | 1,333 |
| Trucks stopped by one blockage | 47 |
| Person-hours lost per year | 911,092 |
| Value of lost time per year | $19.5M |
| Truck-hours idled per year | 21,233 |
| Gallons of fuel idled per year | 163,345 |
| CO₂ per year (metric tons) | 1,474 |
Screening estimate. Each selected crossing is blocked for the set time; drivers wait half of it on average. Method and sources
Crossings in the model
| Crossing | USDOT ID | Vehicles/day | Trains/day | Trucks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 288327V | 32,000 | 35–50 | 4% | |
| 288326N | 32,000 | 35–50 | 3% |
Uncheck a crossing to remove it from the scenario. "~" truck shares use the city's traffic-weighted average where the inventory reports none.
On the record
- East End lines see 35–50 trains a day. They stop across streets 5–10 times a day for about 30 minutes, sometimes up to eight hours.
Houston Public Media · Jun 5, 2023 ↗ - In early 2023, Houston first responders were delayed or rerouted by trains nearly 100 times a month, and complaints rose from 203 in January 2024 to 463 in May 2024.
Houston Landing · Jun 21, 2024 ↗ - In 2024, people reported about 600 blockages within a mile of 71 HISD campuses at arrival or dismissal, and pedestrians climbing the trains in about 300 of them.
Houston Landing · Dec 19, 2024 ↗ - Funding FY2022 RCE: $36,916,200 for four East End underpasses.
Source ↗ - Funding FY2023–24 RCE: $2,000,000 for Harris County to plan 14 East End crossings.
Source ↗ - Funding Included in TxDOT's $756M federal award for 12 grade separations (2026).
Source ↗