Cars and Trains in Albany

Albany is one giant switching yard for the railroads. Just try living where you have to traverse Queen's tracks. The railroad especially enjoys doing car and track switches at the Queens crossing during rush hour. But 34th street also has a highly used train crossing, although that crossing is not as often backed up due to the railroad company's switcheroos on the tracks.

Why do the trains switch cars to other engines, or change tracks, right in the middle of Queen street? Hell if I know, but it is frustrating. North of downtown, on Old Salem and those neighborhoods one is also very likely to get held up over and over by trains, often just stopped on the tracks.

I think every driver in Albany likely could request reimbursement for gas and time wasted from waiting on trains. With gas prices sky high, it really isn't funny anymore. With global warming problems, cars idling in long lines waiting on trains can only make such problems worse.

I'd like to politely ask the railroads to at least not use major intersections as switching yards. Actually I'd like to see trains and cars go their seperate ways, over or under one another. The fuel wasted as a result of these badly planned switching yard intersections is astronomic. So is the time wasted.