As a result, numerous Northwest Indiana communities, including Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago, Griffith, Munster and St. John, which have ticketed trains over the years for repeatedly blocking street crossings, no longer are permitted to do so.

Democratic Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said the threat of fines never was much of a deterrent for rail companies. But Hammond police persisted in issuing them, because blocked crossings are among the most frequent citizen complaints he hears.

"People are frustrated," McDermott said. "It shows that the court, in my opinion, is very out of touch with the problems that real Hoosiers face."

"And one of the very frustrating problems that real Hoosiers face is these trains don't give a crap about how long they disrupt traffic in a city — they don't care."

State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the House Roads and Transportation Committee, said there does not appear to be a way to rewrite the Blocked Crossing Statute to prevent it from being pre-empted by federal law.

"It's a problem, but there isn't an easy solution," Soliday said.