Railroad company to clean mess near north Charlotte neighborhood

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A mess in a north Charlotte neighborhood is still there months after the railroad moved in to make upgrades.

Neighbors told Channel 9 they're frustrated after calls to get it cleaned up have gone unanswered.

After Eyewitness News anchor Scott Wickersham investigated the problem, the railroad company is finally getting involved.

Norfolk Southern replaced railroad ties on several miles of track in west Charlotte in November along Graham Street but after tearing up the tracks and leaving a huge mess, the crew left and never came back.

Just feet from Graham Street, piles of busted rail ties, garbage and twisted metal litter the Norfolk Southern train tracks.

Tom Nix contacted Whistleblower 9 because he says they won't clean it up.

“I think oh my lord, what a mess,” Nix said. “They have a deaf ear because they have their track fixed up the way they want it. They are done with it. To heck with you people.”

Nix said they promised to remove it by Christmas but it’s still there --a tangled heap of railroad debris greeting people as they pull into his neighborhood.

“It shouldn’t be this way,” he said. “If this were in another part of town I’m sure it would be cleaned up.”

Channel 9 contacted Norfolk Southern to get answers.

They said an entire 15-mile stretch of the track has this leftover mess on it.

"The track gang that maintains this stretch of track had been diverted to complete track work in the new intermodal facility at the airport,” according to Norfolk Southern. “We apologize for the delay."

They promised to be out Monday to begin the cleanup and Nix is happy to hear his lifelong home will get back to normal.

“We’re not the richest part of Charlotte,” he said. “But we like to have a nice place to live.”

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