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at intersections with at least one active warning device in October 2001, but it ended in June 2006 when it was superseded by a Federal Railroad Administration rule.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.
What am I talking about? I am talking about people who move into houses that are located near the trains, airports etc. then decide that they are bothered by them so they feel they are entitled to make them stop. Cut me a break.
I wasnt talking LOCAL vs.Federal. I was talking about idiots who put themselves into positions and think we all should change to suit them. Afterall they are entitled.
I live about a half mile south of a track. A few months ago I woke up because the house was shaking. I thought we were having an earthquake, but it lasted for over a minute. I realized it was a train passing. I can’t imagine how long and heavy that train must have been to wake me up by shaking the house.
That reminds me of coming home after a long cruise and not being able to sleep in my own bed because without all the normal shipboard sounds it was too quiet.
It seems pie in the sky to think that it is saving lives to add the whistle, when drivers have gone right around the arm and stopped on the tracks or idiots have walked around even when they see the train.
But hey, I appreciate the government saving me again.
“I’m sure they got their homes for cheap due to the noise, now they got a free upgrade thanks to the taxpayers.”
A similar “windfall” happened for my Aunt, who owns a home near Billy Mitchell Field, outside of Milwaukee, WI.
The airport and air base were there first...then the city kept building subdivisions closer and closer to the airport.
Of course, people started whining about the noise (not my Aunt) and the city (taxpayers) forked over millions of dollars to give hundreds of homes new siding, new windows and doors and for some reason, better heating systems to help cut down on the noise.
Insanity! You KNEW you were buying a home near an airport. Yeesh!
I had a house in Cudahy which was also near the airport. Those planes coming in for a landing practically above my head were unnerving at first, but after a while, I didn’t even hear them and got used to the sound of my windows rattling, LOL!
“There’s the 7:20 coming in from Chicago. Wonder who’s having an adventure today?” ;)
Exactly. See my Post 46. :)
“Everyone who grew up here knows someone that has been killed by a train.”
Part of the reason these train stories and the endless WHINING by Madistan Hippies about their warning whistles strikes home is that my Father-in-Law lost his first Wife, (”Sweet Ann” as he calls her), his Sister and his Mother-in-Law due to a train/car crash. (He later married my Husband’s mother and they formed a blended family of 10 kids!)
The tracks (no longer in use now) are 100 yards from the edge of their farm, five miles up the road from our farm. The whistle and crossing arm malfunctioned while the three were returning from town and his wife and family members didn’t stand a chance.
Of course, there was a huge pay-out by those that maintained the crossings, but what consolation could that have been? He was widowed with six kids to raise before he was even 40 years old. :(
It’s sad, but that’s why these “in-towners” whining about buying a home near a railroad track in the first place makes me want to spit nails!
My ex sister-in-law lives 50 feet from a set of tracks.
You don’t get used to it.
Where I grew up in Ronceverte, WV, our house was on the mountain above the Greenbrier River and the railroad. We had no air conditioning so everyone slept with their windows open and screens to keep the bugs out at night. I can still remember lying in bed and hearing the coal trains coming down the valley in the distance. My great-grandfather was an engineer with the railroad and would walk down the mountain and hop aboard.
That would be quite a surprise since the tracks are three miles from here.
I’m about 3 miles from the AKRR too. I hear the whistles and sometimes the engines if it’s quiet otherwise.
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