This story is getting "national play:"
AP via The News Tribune, 3/31:
Federal rail chief says ticketing important to rail safety
CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. — At a troublesome rail crossing on the road to a public high school, the head of the Federal Railroad Administration stumped Tuesday for increased education and enforcement of safety regulations at railway crossings.
Acting Administrator Sarah Feinberg was promoting the agency's safety campaign — prompted by fatal crashes in New York and California — which calls for increased police patrols and ticketing.
"If you're ticketed for trying to beat a train, you're much less likely to ever try that again," she said.
Feinberg, U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., and other officials gathered at the Metro-North Railroad crossing on Roaring Brook Road in Chappaqua, just a few miles up the line from a crossing in Valhalla, where six people died in February when a train slammed into an SUV on the tracks.
Local officials have called the crossing dangerous, with two close calls in recent weeks, and Lowey invited Feinberg to come up from Washington to see for herself. The crossing, like the one in Valhalla, is just yards from a busy highway and traffic often backs up at the crossing during rush hour. The driver in the Valhalla crash was in traffic and stopped on the tracks when the warning gates came down.
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