Re-Opening road crossing at Ft. Lee rd Bogota?

I just read an article from back in Jan about the possibility of re-opening the crossing over the CSX River Line at Fort Lee road in Bogota. The crossing is now only a pedestrian crossing.
Bogota believes the move would re-vitalize the area. If anyone has been in that area recently, you will have to agree that the area of Fort Lee road from Palisade ave to West Shore ave, and from River Road to the dead-end at the tracks is dead. There aren't really any viable businesses, except the auto-body repair shop on West Shore ave and a few small shops on Ft. Lee road. It is a depressing area. One building's wall even collapsed a couple of years ago.

But what may be good for business in Bogota is a real PITA for CSX. Consider that they have 24+ trains daily, and three tracks in that area. Trains are often moving slowly over that crossing due to having to stop at the interlocking at CP7 or because they are just starting north up-grade from North Bergen or Little Ferry.
Given the attitude of many automobile drivers, any crossing protection will have to be state of the art, preventing anyone from circumventing the crossing gates. There would be a bottleneck at West Shore ave, and I am sure that there would be lots of problems with cars stopping on the crossing.
The whole situation would be far too dangerous!
The only option I would feel comfortable with is to build a bridge over the tracks. But of course that would completely destroy the economy of the area, since a bridge would pass over any businesses, not past them. Perhaps a bridge similar to the new one at Short Clove road in Rockland county would work. That bridge was built to accommodate the large trucks coming and going to the Tilcon plant. It works very well.
So perhaps a bridge which starts on West Shore ave and heads south to cross the track in the vicinity of CP7, then turns north again to head back up to Fort Lee road where it descends to street level again. Sure - it's very expensive, but we surely don't need another grade crossing on this line.

Did you know that there was once a grade crossing at Cedar Lane in Teaneck? That was only one of the many that were either closed or bridged. See the article here: http://www.teaneck.org/virtualvillage/a ... orerr.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And if all of this is not enough - Bogota thinks they can get CSX to pay for part of the crossing upgrade!!

CP

Bogota can go pound salt. CSX will never allow a road grade crossing there let alone pay for it. Bogota is lucky the pedestrian crossing is there. Originally there was a pedestrian tunnel at that location and that was built for the station that was once there, not for the convenience of the citizens of Bogota. Also there is really no reason for autos to cross there anyway. There is the underpass a few blocks down and there is a residential neighborhood on the other side of the crossing that I am sure will not want a road grade crossing built either.

If they want to revitalize that area the first thing they should do is address their putrid rat infestation. You can smell it from half a block away. And the small creek running through there probably flash floods, making the overall situation worse.

And I don't think their chain of antique/estate sale businesses would stay there if their rents went up.

Bogota has been a terrible neighbor to the railroad for a long time. Way back in the early to mid 70's when I was working that line they complained about engines running to keep the train pumped up, trains stopping although no crossings were involved, rocks and other debris could be expected at anytime in Bogota, the cops hated the railroad (I would bet they still do) and it was a place that we would rather keep going though than stop in. I don't see any way the railroad would or even should approve a at grade road crossing on a very busy mainline where one does not exist at present, not under any circumstances. I can only imagine what the railroad pays this dump in property taxes too.
Noel Weaver

ccutler wrote:If they want to revitalize that area the first thing they should do is address their putrid rat infestation. You can smell it from half a block away. And the small creek running through there probably flash floods, making the overall situation worse.

And I don't think their chain of antique/estate sale businesses would stay there if their rents went up.

The best thing Bogota can do to revitalize that neighborhood is to raze all the structures in it and start from scratch. That couple of blocks is just a dump plain and simple.