Officials Join Effort to Get Railroad Tracks Cleaned Up

The sight and stench of a dead dog embedded in railroad tracks illustrated one of the reasons South Los Angeles activists say railways need to clean up their tracks.

Community groups have demanded that the tracks be better maintained, even standing in the way of a train last Friday to protest what they say are unsightly and potentially hazardous conditions.

Public officials rallied behind that effort on Thursday. But what remained unclear was who was responsible for maintaining the tracks.

Activists assumed that The Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railways Co. owned the right of way to the tracks because the trains that traversed them bore the company’s name.

Brotherhood Crusade President Danny Bakewell said he tried unsuccessfully for weeks to reach railroad officials.

But it was revealed Thursday that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority actually owns the right of way and that Burlington Northern has what is called a “usage agreement.”

“We’ve been trying to get this answer from Burlington Northern,” said Ken Collins, spokesman for the Brotherhood Crusade. “As late as Monday, the railroad said, ‘We don’t know who owns the tracks,’ and that they were going to review the contracts.”

Bakewell, Councilwoman Rita Walters and City Atty. James Hahn on Thursday vowed to continue to put political pressure on Burlington Northern to clean up and landscape the barren tracks.

“We think the railroads need to be good neighbors,” Hahn said.

Later that day, Mike Martin, a railroad spokesman, said that his company did not own the right of way and was surprised by the protest. “It is kind of dismaying that the first time we hear about this is when there is a protest,” he said. Martin said no one at the company had heard from Bakewell about a request for a meeting.

MTA spokeswoman Mary Ann Maskery said the MTA sends out a cleaning crew once a month to maintain the tracks, although only Burlington Northern trains--and no MTA trains--use them.

She said landscaping “is generally not done, partly because it is a visual hindrance and a fire hindrance on an active right of way.”