(Iowa News Service) – Representatives from Union Pacific Railroad will be at a town hall meeting in Council Bluffs tomorrow night to hear about the so-called ‘triangle of death’ being created by some of its train tracks. The chronically blocked tracks are frustrating to residents, but also potentially deadly. Council Bluffs used to be home to eight rail companies. They’ve consolidated to four, but there are still 48 crossings in town, and people in about 50 homes are trapped by tracks on two sides. Resident Andrew Whitehill says he sees drivers every day create dangerous situations in a residential area where children are playing.

It’s more of an issue now because as rail carriers have consolidated, the trains making cross-country trips are longer, stretching well beyond the railyard and onto tracks in the city, blocking crossings. The town hall is scheduled for 6:30 tomorrow night in the police department building. U-P has said it is committed to a fix.

Freight train at crossing gate

Mayor Matt Walsh says Union Pacific representatives expressed surprise over the blocked tracks when he met with them, but says the company is willing to make changes, including by installing new technology.

While that fix can keep people from getting into the triangle in the first place, it’s doesn’t do anything to help those who are already there. Union Pacific has told the mayor the company will schedule trains differently to avoid having both sets of tracks occupied at once, and that a new yard master will make sure it happens.