Not Another Houston

From January 2021 through February 2026, Houston residents filed 23,587 blocked crossing reports with the Federal Railroad Administration — 98.3% of them against Union Pacific. The East End absorbs 64% of those reports. This is what five years of data looks like.

Houston now accounts for nearly 1 in 5 blocked crossing reports filed in the entire United States — up from 1 in 10 in 2021.

Houston’s share of national reports has nearly doubled, peaking at 21.2% in 2024 and holding above 18% through 2026.

Individual stops are getting shorter — but total incidents have tripled. The neighborhood gets hit more often.

Month by month, the volume of reported blocked crossings in Houston tells a clear story: this problem is not improving.

Over 10,000 reports since 2021 have documented that first responders have been unable to cross. This is a sustained public safety emergency, not an inconvenience.

98.4% of Houston’s reports are Union Pacific.

That’s not a city that’s improving, that’s a city being left further and further behind. The neighborhood isn’t receiving the relief Union Pacific seems to be promising.