Kyle McClenagan/HPM

The City of Houston has launched a "Train Watch" webpage meant to provide residents with real-time information on rail crossings with stopped trains. They have long been a problem, particularly on the east side.

The new tool is one of several efforts by city, county and state officials to try to improve the region’s rail crossing safety.

According to the city, the Train Watch webpage uses more than $230,000 of donated railway sensor equipment to determine if any of the more than 70 railroad crossings in the city are blocked by trains. The city also received a $3.4 million federal grant last year to improve emergency response times, and that money will be used in part to continue improvements to the sensor network.

Jack Hanagriff is an independent contrac

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