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Train traffic to resume Monday
Train traffic to resume in Warren’s North End after 15 years
Train traffic is expected to resume on tracks on the north end of Warren to carry freight from Warren Steel Holdings.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Train traffic is expected to resume Monday on tracks on Warren’s north side to carry freight from Warren Steel Holdings.
The Ohio Central Railroad has begun to educate safety forces about the dangers at railroad crossings, said Josh Connell, general manager of the Pittsburgh/Northern railroad lines.
The company is reaching out to other groups that could benefit from the presentation to offer it also to them, Connell said.
The tracks cross busy roads such as Mahoning and North Park avenues and more-residential areas such as North, Hall and Comstock streets in the city’s northwest area and North River Road in Howland and Warren townships.
Connell said there are typically issues with motorists not complying with the warning devices when train traffic resumes at a location that has not had that traffic for a while.
“These signs and devices provide a safety message and remind the driver of laws regarding highway-rail grade crossings,” he said.
“Another issue is trespassing on private property,” Connell said, warning that pedestrians who walk or play around railroad tracks are trespassing and could be fined, seriously injured or killed.
The Trumbull County Planning Commission secured $838,000 in state grants and money from the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. that enabled the commission to make improvements to the rail line in 2008.
The main reason for the improvements was to enable Warren Steel Holdings, which uses some of the former Copperweld Steel facilities off Mahoning Avenue Northwest in Warren Township, to ship steel from the plant, said Mark Zigmont, economic-development director for the planning commission.
It took several years for Warren Steel Holdings to complete rail-line improvements in its own rail yards, which is why rail shipments haven’t occurred before now, Zigmont said.
Zigmont said having the rail line in good condition could be an asset to the Warren Commerce Park on Sferra Avenue as well as Warren Steel Holdings.
Additionally, if General Electric closes its Ohio Lamp Plant on North Park Avenue as it has indicated it intends, having rail coming past the plant could help secure another tenant for the building, Zigmont said.
The rail line, which has been unused for about 15 years, travels south into the city, crosses North Park Avenue at North Street, then past the Ohio Lamp Plant and the former Delphi Packard Electric facilities, heading north behind the former Walmart and Cole Valley auto dealership on Elm Road.
Anyone seeing an emergency involving the tracks should call Ohio Central Railroad at 740-622-4011.