RR Arm Malfunction Causing Delays Throughout Petaluma

The company that regulates the railroad crossing arms that have stalled traffic on Petaluma streets in recent days is aware of the problem and is working to resolve it, said Mitch Stogner, executive director of the North Coast Railroad Authority.

On Thursday, traffic backed up as a railroad arm at the Southpoint crossing malfunctioned shortly before 9am, just as commuters were on their way to work. Problems have also been reported at the Lakeville and East Washington and Lakeville and D Street crossings.

Stogner attributed the problem to a calibration malfunction that triggers the railroad arm to drop even when there is no train nearby or a train is not moving.

“When switching is under way, like when a train is dropping a car of grain off at Hunt & Behrens, it sometimes makes the arms drop even though the train is stopped,” Stogner explained.

Summit Signals, the Willits, Calif. company that owns the arms on all 55 crossings from Napa to Windsor, is troubleshooting the issue, he said.

“As we’ve pointed out in the past, the first 30 to 60 days of the train running, we’re going to be getting acclimated,” he said.

Freight service resumed on July 18 after a ten-year absence, delivering grain, produce and construction items along 62 miles of railroad from Napa to Windsor.