The Federal Railroad Administration recently announced a request for information from the public on blocked railroad crossings.

On June 14, the administration issued a federal register notice to obtain information regarding the frequency, location and impacts of highway-rail grade crossings blocked by slow-moving or idling trains. The solicitation notes the potential safety concerns with crossings that are blocked by trains, including that emergency response vehicles may be significantly delayed from responding to an incident or transporting patients to a hospital.

Additionally, the notice states the administration proposes to add new dedicated links to its existing website and its existing phone app for users to report blocked crossings and that this would simplify the reporting of blocked crossing information and standardize the data received.

To submit input, visit federalregister.gov/documents/2019/06/14/2019-12572/proposed-agency-information-collection-activities-comment-request.