Posted on 01/17/2008 6:14:11 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
To the delight of Judy Twesme and other residents, the piercing sound of train whistles will soon fade from Downtown Madison neighborhoods.
The city, which installed $900,000 in gates and flashing lights at 10 crossings in the last two years, has finally won federal approval for three "quiet zones " Downtown beginning Jan. 30.
"People are really, really excited, " said Twesme, a Bassett neighborhood resident. "People aren 't able to sleep through the night. I 'm one of those people. Sleep depravation is not a good thing. "
"The romantic notion of a railroad is not there if there is a train outside your window at 4 in the morning blowing its horn, " said Peter Ostlind, chairman of the Bassett District of Capitol Neighborhoods.
Whistles will continue to blow in other areas, but the city intends to add warning devices at crossings and establish more quiet zones over time, city officials said.
The city will install $780,000 in equipment at eight crossings to create a quiet zone along East Washington Avenue and Fordem Avenue this year. The city can create a zone, which must be a half-mile long, or extend one that's been established.
"Anything the city can do to give residents respite from train horns, especially at night, is really a good thing, especially if it 's safe," said Steve Randolph, the city 's most vocal advocate of a whistle ban, who lives in the area that would be the fourth quiet zone.
"It 's been a long battle with a lot of animosity, " he said.
After a grass-roots campaign, the city adopted a ban on whistles at intersections with at least one active warning device in October 2001, but it ended in June 2006 when it was superseded by a Federal Railroad Administration rule. The rule says whistles must sound at any intersection not protected by both gates and flashing lights.
The city then began a program to improve crossings.
"I 'm ecstatic the city will be able to deliver some peace and quiet for Downtown residents, " said City Council President Mike Verveer, who represents the central city. "The number one complaint by Downtown residents in the last year has been this issue."
Whistles are especially troubling to the many residents who moved Downtown while the city 's initial ban was in place, Verveer said, adding that he hears complaints about people getting ill from sleep deprivation and pets having accidents in homes.
Twesme, for example, bought her home just before the ban ended and was shocked by the first nighttime whistle. "I thought, Oh my God, what 's happening?'"
Funding for improvements came from city tax incremental financing money, not borrowing, said George Twigg, spokesman for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
The state provided money to improve crossings on West Washington Avenue and John Nolen Drive.
The new gates and lights improve safety, Wisconsin Railroad Commissioner Rodney Kruenen said. About a half-dozen trains rumble through the city every day, but the number will increase if the region adopts commuter rail, he said.
"Most people have never seen the aftermath of a rail-vehicle accident, " he said. "You have never seen anything so brutal. It is horrible. "
Ken Lucht, community development manager for the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad, couldn 't be reached.
The city, railroad and state are still discussing possible street closures, new safety equipment and a potential quiet zone in the East Rail corridor, Kruenen said.
It would cost between $10 million and $12 million to improve all crossings in the city, said Steve Sonntag, the city 's pavement management engineer.
"I'm hoping the same (quiet) experience can be shared by more residents of our city over time, " Verveer said.
But, they’re victims; can’t you understand that?
$900,000 for 10 crossings sounds like a relative bargain. The newspaper here in Culpeper, Virginia reported last week that the Town is about to spend more than $500,000 to upgrade (I think) only 3 railroad crossings; for the same purpose, of course. So the train whistles won’t have to blow in order to save stupid people from those sneaky trains.
The horn (or previously whistle) signal for approaching a crossing hasn’t changed in the last hundred year or so: two longs, short, long.
Culling of the herd. I really don’t feel sorry for morons getting hit by trains.
You are reading my mind again. Why people buy houses near these things and then complain is ludicrous.
We have a small airport nearby. It has been there for at least 30 years. It amazes me the amount of people that have bought homes that abut it and now show up at meetings trying to close it down, because they feel its not safe? HUH? No one forced these idiots to buy those homes in that location. Its another symptom of our “but I am entitled” society.
And I stopped noticing them pretty quickly too.
Fortunately, they were electric. Occasionally, a diesel electric would rumble by, and that would draw attention.
One woman I knew lived about as close as you could to the tracks, as in, her backyard abutted them, and during a RR strike, she said she and her husband would wake up in middle of the night because the trains weren't going by.
“Its another symptom of our “but I am entitled” society.”
What are you talking about? If local residents want to approach their LOCAL governments to make changes for the benefits for the residents, how is that considered “entitlement”? Conservatives believe that whenever govt power is necessary, it’s best kept as local as possible. Getting local officials to make changes is MUCH preferable than over-arching Federal legislation. Unless you’re a liberal, of course.
Capital Metro in Austin just got the first shipment of the new Metro rail cars. They were testing the trains at night and bigger than ****, people started complaining about the horns.
No mention that FREIGHT trains have been using that same track for years, including at night. Most of those are hauling road base, and have three to four engines. I guess the locals there were used to those blowing their horns at night.
Well, this is all just a liberal conspiracy against Country-Western music; do you know how many great Country-Western songs would never have been written if it weren’t for the lonely train whistle sound? ;-)
Relax folks...we’re just preparing the way for the moose limb call to prayers soon to be broadcast in the silence...5 times per day.
Oh, the humanity.
When I was running my attitude was, “I’m up, everyone is up.” Not really but had to blow the crossings or get nailed by management or the FRA.
So, no, not everyone loves the sound of a train in the distance.
“.and when someone gets killed because the train was forbidden to blow it’s horn, then what?”
A friend of mine lives in a small, mainline railroad town. She says “Everyone who grew up here knows someone that has been killed by a train.”
Then the emergency vehicles called the scene won't be allowed to use sirens either..
I don’t know what to say. I grew up one block from the tracks and LOVED!!!! to hear the sound of the train going by at night. Yes, while I was sleeping. In La Crosse there are numerous houses right next to the tracks. I’ve never heard of any petition to silence the trains as they go by.
I used to live about 2 blocks from the train tracks. Like you after the first week I didn’t hear them. Mine was mostly commuter rail but every night around midnight we’d have a huge freight come through.
My parents live out in the country where it is extremely quiet. I’d go to visit for Christmas for a week or 2 and it would take me 3 or 4 nights to adjust to the ‘spooky’ silence.
What is there about leftists and this train horn stuff. I live in Flagstaff, AZ and the granola and latte crew here have been up in arms and ready to spend millions in everyone’s tax dollars over the same issue. The trains have gone through Flagstaff, sounding their horns, since the 1880’s. That’s many, many years before the current crop of “crystal people” arrived from California. Trains moving mean prosperity; when they diminish or stop, a lot of trust funds underwriting some fashionably “green” lifestyles are going to dry up too.
Regarding the train horns, I tell these aging hippies; “If they’re too loud, you’re too old.”
The engineman is always permitted - indeed, required - to use the horn in case of an emergency, or to warn someone on or near the tracks. This supersedes the "quiet zone" rules.
Not to do so could result in rules violation charges against the engineman if an accident or fatality did happen afterwards. Modern locomotives have event recorders that record such things as the sounding of the horn and the ringing of the bell, headlight position, and numerous other things.
In fact, on trains such as Amtrak's Acela Express, the entire operation of the train is recorded and is retained as a permanent record. They could go back 5 years to a particular trip, and replay it back in front of you.
In the future, things are going to go even further. Today, the information is "recorded" onto an "event recorder", which can be played back later. But I believe Amtrak has invited bids on some sort of "real-time monitoring" system using "data radios", by which the operation of a locomotive can be reviewed continuously and in "real-time" as it is being operated, from a control center miles away. "Big brother is watching you", in real life! It won't be in operation for a few years, yet - but it's coming.
- John
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