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Starting Nov. 25, trains going through Henryetta will be speeding up.
trainBurlington Northern said the change moves the maximum allowable track speeds to 45 miles per hour. Currently trains are only allowed a 25 mile per hour max.
The change affects 2.5 miles of the route between the crossing at Maxine Avenue on the north to the Interstate 40 underpass on the south side of town.
“The higher train speeds will have the advantage of clearing crossings in your community more quickly, thereby reducing traffic congestion,” said Joe Sloan BNSF director of public affairs.
He said recent work on the track and signals has made it possible for BNSF to increase the speed.
“The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) defines all track in the United States by Class. Appropriate speed ranges for each Class are also designated by the FRA, much like different highways have different posted speed limits based on how safely each road can handle traffic.”
Those freight classifications range from 10 miles per hour for class 1 tracks to 80 miles per hour for class 5 tracks.
Also recently installed was the Positive Train Control (PTC) system.
That system uses GPS, Wi-Fi and high-band radio transmission to determine the location, direction and speed of the train. With it in place, the train can actually be stopped if the train crew does not respond to network operators.
With that increase speed, workers have been modifying the circuits for active crossing warning devices so that the motoring public is provided the same amount of advance warning of an approaching train.