An unfortunate barrier slowed down citizens attending a Temple town hall with city, county and state elected officials. A Norfolk Southern train was blocking most intersections in Temple prior to the meeting. Temple, along with Villa Rica, has struggled with delayed trains for months and 30th District State Senator, Mike Dugan said while progress has been made it is a complicated problem.

“Good news for everybody, we have the fastest growing port in the country, in Savannah,” said Dugan, “Bad news for Temple, Most of that is being put on trains that is coming this way. The trains are getting longer.”

Dugan said many of the trains that pass through the area are up to two miles in length. Combine that with heavy train traffic and the fact that the area is designated as a crews transfer zone an it is a perfect storm of problems.

Possibilities of constructing a tunnel to bypass the railway seems unlikely according to Dugan because federal dollars would be involved and traffic flow is not heavy enough.

“If we are waiting on transportation funding coming from DC, we will never get a tunnel. You might as well go out there now and start digging with a shovel,” commented Dugan.

Dugan, the secretary of the transportation committee, said he is not done with this problem.