PHOENIX — It's not uncommon for drivers along Grand Avenue in Sun City, between Bell Road and 99th Avenue, to travel alongside a 16,800-foot-long train.
The length of that train is more than three miles long and is delivering new vehicles to a distribution facility in El Mirage.
It can take motorists an hour and 20 minutes to cross the tracks once that train rolls through town.
"It becomes more and more relevant in the last three years where railroads are trying to condense and combine and maximize going after profits," said Scott Jones, a locomotive engineer and rail safety expert.
Last week Jones testified before the Arizona House Transportation Committee in support of HB 2531.
The bill, by Tucson State Representative Consuelo Hernandez, limits the length of freight trains to 8,500 feet.
Much of Hernandez's district encompasses rural Arizona where freight train lengths can be as long as 18,000 feet.
"When you can't get across where the train is crossing you can't go to work, you can't go to school and that also means you can't, if there is an accident, the first responders cannot get to that location on time," Representative Hernandez, (D) Tucson District 21, said.
The bill was filed before freight cars filled with a variety of toxic chemicals spilled during a derailment in Palestine, Ohio. Federal investigators suspect mechanical issues with one of the rail cars caused the crash. But the length and weight of the train may have been contributing factors.
Nobody with the rail companies that operate in Arizona spoke on the bill.
The bill did pass out of the Transportation Committee and it's now headed to the House floor.
