The commission, which has jurisdiction over all railroad crossings in the state, objected to the city's plans to install a new crossing at Flower Street and San Fernando Road in July 2005. The commission originally approved the crossing in 2001 in exchange for the closure of two other crossing at Bekins Way and Allen Avenue in 1999 and 2000.
But the city did not build the crossing before the commission's approval expired two years later, and it was forced to reapply for permission.
When the city reapplied in 2005, the commission's engineering section raised safety concerns about the project.
Numerous accidents have happened along the railroad tracks ? which Metrolink, Amtrak and Union Pacific freight trains use ? since the commission's 2001 approval, commission attorney Patrick Berdge said at a pre-hearing conference on May 9.
"Moreover, the storage concern, people queuing on the tracks, is a real significant problem," Berdge said. "There's very little distance between San Fernando Road and the double tracks on this mainline corridor."
Union Pacific Railroad and the California Department of Transportation representatives also expressed concerns about the safety of the proposed crossing at the hearing.
City officials have asked the commission to be more specific about its concerns regarding the crossing so that they can address them, said Jose Guzman, the city's attorney.
"We didn't get a lot of feedback from the staff, although they continue to say that they believe that it's an unsafe crossing, and they have mentioned only some stacking and storage capacity across the tracks as an issue for them," Guzman said. "The city is a little bit unaware of what other issues there may be with respect to the safety of the crossing."
