Oklahoma City metro: 52 at-grade crossings on one freight line
I-35, I-40 and I-44 meet in Oklahoma City, and so do the trains. The BNSF line between Texas and Kansas crosses 52 streets at grade between Edmond and Norman, and train traffic on it is projected to more than double by 2032.
Seven towns on the same line report the same problem
From Edmond to Davis, the same line divides each town, and residents, police and city halls report the same thing. Select a town to open its case file and run a scenario.
A stopped train typically blocks five to seven of the city's 11 crossings. One Main St intersection was blocked 53 hours in six weeks.
Southwest Ledger, Dec 2022Stops near NE 10th and Broadway turned a 10-minute drive into 35. Britton Rd at Western has had 27 vehicle–train collisions.
The Oklahoman; RTA grant narrative115 emergency vehicles were blocked by a train at SH-37 in 20 months. A $30M underpass is now under way, due 2027.
ODOT RAISE narrative; City of Moore21 trains a day, 3–6 minutes each, and the ER moved west of the tracks in 2024. A $1.44M grant funds Tecumseh Rd planning.
FRA inventory; City of NormanMain St crosses the UP line downtown. It's one of the first areas a crowdsourced resident tracker covered in 2026.
Fox25, Sep 2026A single stopped train can block all three crossings. Police once needed 37 minutes to go two blocks. A $25.4M federal grant is funding a fix.
KXII; FRA FY23–24 RCEResidents report crossings blocked five to six hours.
Southwest Ledger, May 2023Downtown Oklahoma City
Through Bricktown the BNSF tracks run on an embankment, so downtown itself has no at-grade crossings. They start again just outside it: six in a row along Automobile Alley and Midtown from NE 7th to NE 16th, and seven from SE 25th south to Crossroads Blvd. Since 2017 these crossings have sat inside a quiet zone, so trains don't routinely sound their horns.
North: Automobile Alley and Midtown · 4 collisions since 2005
| Crossing | Vehicles/day | Train collisions |
|---|---|---|
| NE 7th StDOT 012101V | 3,000 | 1 |
| NE 8th StDOT 012100N | 1,500 | 0 |
| NE 9th StDOT 012099W | 2,000 | 0 |
| NE 10th StDOT 012098P | 14,700 | 2 |
| NE 13th StDOT 012094M | 4,500 | 0 |
| NE 16th StDOT 012092Y | 4,500 | 1 |
South: SE 25th to Crossroads · 19 collisions since 2005
| Crossing | Vehicles/day | Train collisions |
|---|---|---|
| S 25th StDOT 012119F | 8,000 | 1 |
| S 27th StDOT 012120A | 4,396 | 6 |
| S 29th StDOT 012121G | 10,800 | 5 |
| SE Grand StDOT 012122N | 6,800 | 4 |
| SE 44th StDOT 012124C | 11,200 | 2 |
| High AveDOT 012125J | 2,505 | 1 |
| Crossroads BlvdDOT 012128E | 2,881 | 0 |
- Santa Fe South High School operates in the former Crossroads Mall, about a third of a mile from the Crossroads Blvd crossing.
Crossroads Mall (Wikipedia) - ODOT's 2024 crossing-elimination award is a $500,000 master plan ($400,000 federal, $100,000 ODOT) to review and rank all 52 crossings from Edmond to Norman. It pays for planning, not construction.
ODOT RCE grant narrative (FY24) - The quiet zone runs about three miles, from SE 23rd to NE 16th, and 11 intersections were rebuilt for it.
City of Oklahoma City, Feb 27, 2017 - Who gets caught when these crossings block: pedestrians, students and buses. Safety analysis
Collision counts: FRA Form 57, 2005–2026. Traffic: FRA Crossing Inventory; several counts date to the 1980s. Stopped-train reports near 10th and Broadway: The Oklahoman.
Train traffic is projected to double on the same crossings
Every added train means more gate-down time at the same 52 at-grade crossings, and the trucks serving the metro's distribution centers wait in the same lines.
Trains a day, Edmond–OKC–Norman
Source: RTA of Central Oklahoma RCE grant narrative. Commuter rail requires voter approval; a referendum is targeted for 2027.
Value of freight moving through Oklahoma
Source: Oklahoma Freight Plan 2023–2030, ch. 4. Tonnage grows from 435.5M to 588.5M tons (+35%).
Distribution centers on both sides of the tracks
Big distribution operations sit within a few miles of the BNSF line. Every blocked crossing pushes trucks onto detours and into the I-35/I-40 interchange, which the state already lists as a freight bottleneck.
Where trains and traffic meet most
| Crossing | Vehicles/day | Trains/day | Exposure |
|---|---|---|---|
| W Tecumseh Rd, Norman | 18750 | 21 | 393750 |
| W 15th St, Edmond | 19964 | 18 | 359352 |
| W Danforth Rd, Edmond | 20164 | 17 | 342788 |
| E Lindsey St, Norman | 16000 | 21 | 336000 |
| W 33rd St, Edmond | 17251 | 18 | 310518 |
| E Boyd St, Norman | 13600 | 21 | 285600 |
| NW Britton Rd / Western, OKC | 14516 | 19 | 275804 |
| NE 10th St, OKC | 14700 | 18 | 264600 |
| SE 44th St, OKC | 11200 | 20 | 224000 |
| NE 12th St, Moore | 8800 | 21 | 184800 |
| NW 122nd St, OKC | 10184 | 18 | 183312 |
| E Main St, Davis | 8000 | 21 | 168000 |
| W Main St, Yukon | 10600 | 3 | 31800 |
Residents have started tracking blockages themselves
In September 2026, local news covered a 14-year-old's crowdsourced website for reporting blocked crossings in Yukon and Automobile Alley. It drew about 55 contributors and 60 reports in its first 24 hours.
Sources: BNSF v. City of Edmond (10th Cir. 2022) · Oklahoma Corporation Commission
Run the numbers for the corridor.
Open the OKC metro case file and set your own blockage scenario.