Railroad Challenges Orr’s New Speed Limit

Aug. 30–An Orr City Council resolution that limits Canadian National Railway trains to a 30 mph speed limit while within city boundaries is now state law.

The measure, aimed at slowing trains while within city limits, has been certified by the Minnesota secretary of state.

But CN — which calls the measure ill-conceived and detrimental to the public interest — now wants to know what would happen if a train exceeds the speed limit.

For two years, Orr residents and the railroad have argued about train speeds through the small northern Minnesota city.

In a letter sent Friday to state Attorney General Mike Hatch, St. Louis County Sheriff Ross Litman and Orr Mayor Doran Klakoski, CN spokesman Kevin Soucie asks whether deputies would pursue a train with squad car lights flashing and arrest the crew.

City safety and St. Louis County officials say there’s no plan to stop trains and arrest, handcuff or jail railroad engineers.

St. Louis County undersheriff Dave Phillips said it appears from state statute that violating the speed law is a misdemeanor. But it’s not yet clear how the law would be enforced.

“We do support the city of Orr’s concern for safety,” Phillips said. “But we’re still in the research mode here. Just because a law is passed doesn’t mean that the local police or other law enforcement are capable of enforcing it. We don’t know if we have enforceability yet. We’re hoping it’s something that the railroad will work out with the city of Orr rather than becoming an adversarial relationship.”

Phillips said the Sheriff’s Department also hasn’t determined how it would cite operators of a speeding train.

“We’re not going to pull a train over, arrest the engineers and take them to jail,” he said. “And we’re not going to let air out of our squad car tires so they can run on the rails. We do have a heavy interest in rail safety in Orr and throughout the county. We’d love to see the railroad work with the townspeople.”

St. Louis County Attorney Alan Mitchell said Monday that the Sheriff’s Department doesn’t make arrests for misdemeanors.

“I don’t believe anybody will be arrested,” he said. “How the city of Orr elects to enforce it is up to them.”

Brian Bruns, a member of the Orr Safety Committee, said the city doesn’t plan to stop a train for speeding or put railroad engineers in handcuffs.

“We don’t plan on pulling a train over in any sense,” Bruns said. “That’s ridiculous.”

If trains were seen speeding, a request would be made for the Sheriff’s Department to make periodic checks on speeds and issue citations to the railroad, Bruns said.

“It’s something that has to be done. I’m not going to put children’s lives on the line with trains going 60 miles per hour,” he said.

“We got through one phase of it and convinced state lawmakers of its importance,” Bruns said. “Now, we have to stand up against the railroad and maybe even the federal government to make them understand our situation here.”

As of Monday, the attorney general’s office hadn’t received the CN letter, said Leslie Sandberg, an attorney general’s office spokeswoman.

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