Was the Amtrak delayed because the dispatcher mishandled the situation?
Anyway, we toyed with the idea to have the bridge down most of the time and open it only if a boat comes along and requests a passage. This is how street drawbridges operate, which also applies to bridges carrying both automobile and railroad traffic over the river. There is a bridge tender on duty at that location, who would call you. Once you agree the tender would open the bridge for a while - for how long it is up to the tender, not to you. It is possible to operate this way during certain times of the day, while doing the current remote operation otherwise.
I think one of your territories there is a location where more than one drawbridges are placed next to each other. Wouldn't it make sense that an opening on demand would affect all bridges?