Rail crossings on the MS Coast are deadly. After long wait, leaders say new plan will help

Tired of collisions and near-misses with trains, the Mississippi Coast will soon start leveling high railroad crossings that often snare semi-trucks and which led to tragedy after a coach bus got stuck on Biloxi’s tracks nearly eight years ago.

Work will begin in March in Long Beach. The Mississippi Department of Transportation is raising the roads around most of the city’s crossings. Leaders say that will stop truckers from stalling on tracks when long trailers scrape against the high ground and stop the cab from driving forward.

“We’re in great fear every time a truck gets stuck,” Long Beach Mayor George Bass said, “that we can’t get the train stopped in time.”

The roughly $3 million project will level two crossings meant for truckers: Richards and Cleveland avenues. Other crossings will get minor improvements to smooth crossing for passenger cars. One crossing, at Jeff Davis Avenue, is already relatively level.

Josh Stubbs, director of aeronautics and rails at MDOT, said the state has long sought a solution for high crossings on the Coast. It plans to level crossings in Pass Christian next before expanding the project to Gulfport and Biloxi.

“The big picture idea,” he said, “is to provide a truck route in all these cities.”

Dangers at MS Coast crossings

The trouble at crossings is common: Railroad tracks are high on the Coast, where trains contend with heavy rainfall, flooding and storm surge. Trains slammed two semi-trucks stuck at the same rail crossing last year in Gulfport. Coast leaders have said other near-misses go unreported because authorities pull 18-wheelers off the tracks in time.

The train that struck a coach bus in Biloxi in 2017 killed four people after the bus could not clear a high-grade crossing on Main Street. The National Transportation Safety Board later blamed the tragedy on what it called a failure of the rail company CSX Transportation and Biloxi to work together to improve safety at the crossing where the crash occurred. Sixteen crashes happened at the same crossing in the four decades before.

Biloxi leveled the Main Street crossing in 2023.

The tragedy “put a spotlight on these humpback crossings,” Stubbs said. “Telling commercial vehicles to stay off of the crossings really wasn’t going to get the job done.”

MDOT is focusing on the Coast because of the sheer number of railroad crossings and because of how many high crossings it has, Stubbs said. The region’s population is also growing, and train traffic will increase when an Amtrak route between New Orleans and Mobile returns this year.

Bass said Long Beach started talking with MDOT about fixing its crossings five years ago. But he said CSX raised the track elevation in that time, which disrupted engineering plans. MDOT had to work through multiple hurdles, such as working with the railroad on drainage requirements, that prolonged the start of construction. Stubbs said future work in other cities will probably move faster now that MDOT has sorted those details.

Striving for safety

CSX does maintenance on its tracks every four to 10 years and often raises the tracks by up to 3 inches each time to strengthen the foundation and improve drainage.

“It’s unavoidable in many cases,” CSX spokesperson Austin Staton said in a statement. “CSX doesn’t raise tracks simply to raise tracks, it’s a result of maintenance.”

It is unclear how long the work in Long Beach will take. It includes improving drainage to stop water from flooding businesses near crossings. Bass said fixing the crossings will also conserve emergency resources -- the city sends about three patrol officers and at least one fire engine each time a semi-truck stalls in a train’s path. Leveling the roads could also save annoyed homeowners: Bass said some residents rush from their doorsteps to stop trucks from attempting doomed crossings.

Kimbler Sloan, the executive director of Mississippi Operation Lifesaver, said drivers still need to stay cautious. “The train you see is closer and faster moving than you think,” she said.

City leaders say they will coordinate with Apple Maps and Google Maps to designate Richards and Cleveland avenues as truck routes when the work is done. The project may not be a permanent solution because CSX controls its tracks and could raise them again in the future.

“We’re finally catching up to the elevation they’ve been allowed to do,” Bass said.