Section: Houston Data
Houston, by the numbers
The Federal Railroad Administration runs a public portal where anyone can report a blocked crossing. Five and a half years of that data tells one story: the problem is national, the epicenter is Houston, and it is getting worse.
Blocked crossings
Extend the window to mid-2026 and the numbers grow. From January 2021 through June 2026, the nine-county Houston region logged 25,196 FRA reports at UP crossings across 652 distinct crossings. The first half of 2026 alone produced 4,003 reports. At that pace, 2026 becomes the worst year on record.
FRA Blocked Crossing Incident Reports, Jan. 2021–Jun. 2026, UP crossings, 9-county Houston region (community cross-reference analysis, Jul. 2026).What do the reports actually describe?
Across the 2021–2026 Houston-region dataset: 10,985 reports cite blocked or delayed first responders. 11,634 describe pedestrians climbing on, under, or through stopped trains. 897 involve schoolchildren. 3,570 describe blockages lasting two hours or more. At Eastwood Street, reported blockages break down as 382 lasting 1–2 hours, 256 lasting 2–6 hours, 34 lasting 6–12 hours, 7 lasting 12–24 hours, and 2 lasting more than a full day.
FRA Blocked Crossing Incident Reports, Jan. 2021–Jun. 2026; Eastwood duration breakdown per Not Another Houston fact sheet, Mar. 2026.A note on what this data is, and is not
FRA reports are voluntary complaints, so they measure both blockage frequency and residents' willingness to report. They can include duplicates. They are still the best national apples-to-apples dataset available, and the City of Houston's own sensor pilots with Trainfo corroborate the pattern with objective duration measurements at instrumented crossings.
FRA Blocked Crossing Portal methodology; Trainfo / City of Houston white paper, 2022–2023.The human cost is on the record in Congress. Texas's 29th District led the nation in blocked-crossing incidents every year from 2021 to 2025, each year with at least double the next-closest district. Five people died and 15 were injured in grade-crossing incidents in the district over those five years. One was a 15-year-old student killed crossing the tracks on his walk to Milby High School. Texas does not bus students who live within two miles of school, and about 40% of area campuses sit near rail crossings.
Rep. Sylvia Garcia, remarks to House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Member Day, Jan. 14, 2026.Idling and stopped trains
Blocked crossings and idling locomotives are the same problem wearing two hats. Houston's East End sits between the Englewood and Settegast yards and the Port, and trains routinely hold at Towers 26 and 87 waiting for other traffic to clear. While they wait, they block streets and they idle diesel engines next to homes and schools. Harris County's Precinct 2 comment describes trains blocking neighborhood crossings for 30 minutes or more as routine, and asks the Board to study diesel emissions from idling trains directly. The City of Houston asked for enforceable idling limits in residential areas as a condition of any approval.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia comment, STB filing 310429; City of Houston comment, Oct. 13, 2025, Docket FD 36873.Why do trains stop here so often?
Houston's rail network crosses itself at grade. Where two busy lines intersect at street level, one train waits for the other, and a two-mile train waiting for clearance has to sit somewhere. That somewhere is usually a residential crossing. This cascade effect is why local officials keep asking for a full system study covering secondary lines, and why a study of only the main merger corridors would miss most of the real-world impact.
Commissioner Adrian Garcia comment (filing 310429); City of Houston comment, Oct. 13, 2025.More trains, longer trains
UP's original application projected train volume growth of 36.7% on the Lafayette Subdivision and 36.8% on the Houston Subdivision at Tower 87 by Year 5. Those are the corridors feeding the East End. The amended application restates the busiest downtown segment as growing from 58.7 to about 63.8 trains per day. Either way, the direction is the same: more trains through the neighborhoods with the nation's worst blocked-crossing record.
STB filings EI-34153 (original) & EI-34224/EI-34228 (amended), Docket FD 36873.Trains are also getting longer. UP told the Texas House Transportation Committee in April 2025 that its average train runs 7,500 feet. UP's own SEC disclosures for 2025 show quarterly averages of 9,490 to 9,801 feet, roughly 30% longer, approaching two miles. Community observers in Houston report individual trains at three miles. Longer trains take longer to clear a crossing, and when they stop, they block more crossings at once.
UP testimony, Texas House Transportation Committee, Apr. 3, 2025; UP quarterly earnings reports / SEC filings, 2025; "What UP Says vs. What UP Filed," Not Another Houston.The bottom line. UP's own operating plan acknowledges the risk in one sentence buried in a compliance filing: the railroads recognize the increased traffic and operational changes may cause additional blocked crossings. The mitigation they offer is a continuation of today's voluntary programs. Today's voluntary programs produced the numbers on this page.
UP-NS blocked-crossings information submission, Dec. 19, 2025, STB filing EI-34241 / EI-34160.