Residents of a Fort Worth neighborhood may soon see their travel woes relieved.
Tarrant County officials plan to construct a new road to increase accessibility to the Vista Ranch neighborhood, where residents have expressed frustration with being essentially landlocked by idle trains.
Residents of the Vista Ranch community have complained about stopped trains blocking the singular road in and out of the neighborhood for quite some time. A particular blockage last month left residents unable to access or leave their community for hours, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“Never in my wildest dreams, I’d never thought to ask, you know, ‘how often do they back up?’ or ‘how long can they be backed up for,” said David Bray, president of the Vista Ranch Homeowners Association, reported NBC 5 DFW.
“If you’re inside the development, there’s nowhere for you to go. If you’re outside the development, you just have to wait until the train passes before you can go home,” said Bray.
Manny Ramírez, commissioner of Tarrant County Precinct 4, said that the county is in the process of constructing a second entrance, describing the blockages as “absolutely unacceptable.”
“I had staff immediately start working on a plan to provide a second entrance to this neighborhood,” Ramírez said, per NBC 5.
“To this point, we’ve actually already gotten the design about 60% of the way to build a second road, completely connecting the neighborhood with another alternative entrance and exit,” he added.
Ramirez said he hopes to have the new road built within a year, claiming its construction is a “top priority” for his precinct. He added that the county is also working with the private sector and Union Pacific to devise a satisfactory solution.
“We have had very frank and very constructive conversations with our partners at [Union Pacific],” said Ramírez, per NBC 5.
A spokesperson for Union Pacific told NBC 5 that while the company understands residents’ frustration, one train essentially removes “hundreds of trucks” from roads and reduces congestion. The railway company said it is currently working to find both long-term and short-term solutions.
