Trains
Which railroad blocks which road, who to ring about it, and what the law says. Plus the one timetable through this city that is real.
There is no freight train schedule. There cannot be one.
The line that blocks Cherry Hill, Palmer, Hix and Glenwood is CSX freight. CSX does not run those trains to a timetable and does not publish one. They move when a dispatcher in Jacksonville says they move, and a train that stops on the line can sit across a road for a long time. Anyone offering you “the Westland train schedule” is guessing.
What you can do is report it, every single time. Reports are the only reason a crossing ever moves up anybody’s list, and they take about a minute.
Report a blocked crossing
Federal Railroad Administration
A crossing that was blocked. This is the one that counts. Every report goes into a national database the FRA takes to the railroads, and a crossing with hundreds of reports against it is a crossing that gets a meeting. It takes about a minute and you do not have to give your name.
It asks for the crossing's DOT number. That is the number on the blue-and-white sign at the crossing. If you cannot see it, the street name works.
CSX Public Safety Coordination Center
A train sitting across the road right now, a gate stuck down with no train, or anything actually dangerous. This is CSX's own 24-hour line and it is the number printed on the blue sign at every CSX crossing.
Have the DOT number off the blue sign ready. It tells them which road you mean.
MDOT Rail Safety
The state. Rough crossing surface, a crossing you cannot see far enough down, signals that keep failing. MDOT is also who decides which crossings get rebuilt.
MDOT: report rail crossing concerns
MDOT Rail Safety, 425 W. Ottawa Street, Lansing, MI 48909
City of Westland
Your council member, and the traffic and emergency-response side of it. An ambulance held up at Cherry Hill is a city problem as much as a railroad one.
What the law says
Five minutes
A railroad must not let a train block a public road for longer than five minutes at a time. The exceptions are a train moving continuously in one direction at 10 mph or more, for up to seven minutes, and a verifiable accident, mechanical failure or unsafe condition. That last exception is doing a great deal of work.
Two minutes for the gates
Separately, the gates must not be left down for more than two minutes when there is no train coming. If the gates are down at an empty crossing, time it.
The penalty
Each offence is a fine of up to $500, or up to $1,000 plus costs where a railroad is found to have blocked traffic wilfully and deliberately.
This is MCL 462.391, in the Railroad Code of 1993. Quote the section number when you ring somebody.
Every crossing
Surveyed from OpenStreetMap and checked on 19 August 2026. The ones marked just outside are over the border in Wayne, Canton or Livonia and are here because Westland people drive them.
Saginaw Subdivision
CSX Transportation · 40 mph
The freight line, and the one that blocks you. It runs corner to corner across Westland, north-west to south-east, from Joy Road down to Van Born. Freight only, no timetable, and a train that stops on it can sit across a road for a long time.
800-232-0144CSX Public Safety Coordination Center
Joy Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Haggerty Roadjust outside
Gates and lights
No reports yet
Koppernick Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Warren Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Ford Drive
No gates recorded
No reports yet
South Frontage Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
North Hix Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Cherry Hill Road
Gates and lights · DOT 232201G
No reports yet
Palmer Road
Gates and lights
No reports yet
Glenwood Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Annapolis Streetjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Van Born Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Michigan Subdivision
Amtrak · track owned by Michigan Department of Transportation · 79 mph
The passenger line along the southern edge of the city, Chicago to Detroit and Pontiac. Six Wolverine trains a day, on a published timetable, at 79 mph. A train doing 79 mph is across a road and gone in well under a minute. This is not the line anyone is complaining about.
800-331-0008Amtrak Police emergency line
Haggerty Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
South Lotz Roadjust outside
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Hannan Roadjust outside
Gates and lights
No reports yet
Elizabeth Street
No gates recorded
No reports yet
2nd Street
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Howe Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Venoy Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Winifred Street
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Merriman Road
Gates and lights · DOT 5451B4J
No reports yet
Henry Ruff Road
No gates recorded
No reports yet
Most crossings here have no DOT number listed. That number is printed on the blue-and-white sign at the crossing itself, along with the railroad’s emergency line. We publish only the ones recorded in the survey data and do not work the rest out, because the whole value of that number is that it points a dispatcher at one exact road.
What people are reporting
Nobody has reported a crossing yet. The first ones are the most useful, because until there are enough there is no pattern to show.
Stuck at one now?
Log it here so the next person knows, then report it to the FRA above. This form is ours; it is not a complaint to anybody official.
No notes to show yet. Anything readers add to a report appears here once an editor has read it.
The one real timetable
Six Amtrak Wolverine trains a day cross the south of the city, on the line that runs along Michigan Avenue. They do 79 mph and are across a road in well under a minute, so they are almost certainly not what is holding you up, but they do run to a timetable, which is more than can be said for the freight.
No train stops in Westland. The nearest stations are Ann Arbor to the west and Dearborn to the east, so both times are given and the train is somewhere between them when it crosses Merriman, Venoy, Howe or Henry Ruff. We do not print a Westland minute, because Amtrak does not publish one and we are not going to invent it.
| Train | Heading for | Ann Arbor | Dearborn |
|---|---|---|---|
| 351 | Chicago | 7:19a | 6:49a |
| 353 | Chicago | 10:28a | 9:58a |
| 350 | Detroit and Pontiac | 12:33p | 1:02p |
| 355 | Chicago | 6:40p | 6:09p |
| 352 | Detroit and Pontiac | 8:00p | 8:34p |
| 354 | Detroit and Pontiac | 11:13p | 11:42p |
Read off Amtrak’s own timetable on 19 August 2026. They change it without notice, so check the current timetable or track a train live before you rely on it.
A crossing we have missed, or a number here that rings out? Tell us and we will fix it.