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Kansas City Southern Railway June 14 began removing a portion of track that parallels State Highway 78 in Wylie, Texas — a project designed to eliminate 12 grade crossings and avoid opening two other crossings, and enable the state of Texas to widen Highway 78.
KCS, which Oct. 1 opened a classification yard in Wylie, plans to continue serving affected customers through its Alliance Subdivision mainline and a new connection near Wylie.
"On an average day in Wylie, there'll be 45 fewer opportunities for highway/rail grade crossing collisions to occur after the work is completed," said Allen Pepper, KCS manager of public safety, in a prepared statement. "That's more than 16,000 fewer opportunities per year for a car and train to collide."
In addition to eliminating the crossings, KCS plans to convey 21 acres of its right of way to Collin County, which helped prompt the state to hasten its planned widening start date.