What local politicians are doing after the latest Cabazon Train Stoppage

Following last week's train stoppage in Cabazon that frustrated drivers, local public officials are taking new steps to prevent a train stoppage in the future from happening.

It was just last week, a train stoppage in Cabazon left drivers frustrated for several hours in attempting to get home.

Dr. Yxtian Gutierrez is the County of Riverside Supervisor for the 5th District, and received complaints from residents during the night of train stop. Their frustration he said, is easily understandable.

Parents, complained to our office as well and rightfully so," he explained. You know know, they weren't able to pick up their kids, because we do have a family daycare center in Cabazon. so they were unable to pick up their children, so it's really difficult."

There's two types of stoppages happening, that residents of the area have been forced to contend with, Guitierrez explained - operational and malfunction related.

"The stoppage that occurred last week wasn't an operational stoppage," Supervisor Gutierrez explained. "One of the operational ones can take 8 to 27 minutes every time, which that needs to be fixed immediately."

"Then this one coincidentally was a malfunction that happened with the train. Those happen around, you know, two to three times, a year but compounding that with the frustration that people already have because they've been waiting 27 minutes, sometimes 22 minutes. It makes the problem worse."

It doesn't take long to find out this problem, has plagued Cabazon residents for several years. News Channel 3 received several videos and photos of last weeks train stoppage, including comments they expected the stoppage to last well into the night.

Fortunately, the train did eventually move by 8:10pm. But for public officials like Supervisor Gutierrez and Congressman Raul Ruiz, enough was enough.

Now an effort spearheaded by the two along with several partners is underway to curb the problem.

"We have a task force that we recently created, to work, hand in hand, with our transportation department," Supervisor Gutierrez said. "Our planning department and also our public safety department. We have folks from each of those, departments working with Union Pacific to see if we can either not block the two areas that are being blocked, or stop about 500 feet before."

Instrumental in the recent effort to help fix the problem plaguing Cabazon residents, Supervisor Gutierrez said Congressman Raul Ruiz office has been assisting at the state level.

"It's been a colloborative effort, and I can tell you the congressmember's office is working, directly with Federal Railroad Administration."

Supervisor Gutierrez explained he bis belief they're making headway in working on a fix with Union Pacific, which has been helped in getting started thanks to calls from local residents.

"Because we've been hearing from many residents, it's not in the county's jurisdiction, per se, because, you know, the railroads are in the federal jurisdiction, but it does affect my residents, and we're working really diligently on this."

For now, Sueprvisor Gutierrez says there's not a timetable on when a end-all fix will be implemented, but that they've already began to make progress. He's said there's been communication with Union Pacific and they've already submitted data for them on the issue to review.

I know for sure that some action will be taken because we are working," he explained. "We've even told Union Pacific that we're submitting these complaints to Federal Railroad Administration directly."

You can view all of New Channel 3's coverage on train stoppages in the Cabazon area on our website. You can also view the article on last week's stoppage that lasted until just after 8pm Wednesday at this link.