So I guess it’s not true what Paul Simon said. “Everyone loves the sound of a train in the distance. Everyone knows it’s true.”
My house is about 200 yards from a set of railroad tracks, which runs maybe 4 or 5 trains a day, including some that run overnight. When I first moved in, I could hear the trains, but after about a week, you don't even notice them. I find it difficult to believe that these people are being kept up by the trains running by.
...and when someone gets killed because the train was forbidden to blow it’s horn, then what?
“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.”
At the cost of $900,000 taxpayer dollars, these people have increased their property values. Unless you owned your home before 1900, everyone should know there always was a train there and trains make noise! I’m sure they got their homes for cheap due to the noise, now they got a free upgrade thanks to the taxpayers.
Which was there first? The complainers or the trains?
If you don’t like noise don’t buy a house near a rail road. Trains are loud. The same can be said about living near an air port that was already there when you bought your house.
My town has a restriction on the length of the train horn blast during particular hours, but no outright ban. That’s just foolish and jeopardizes safety. Like other postings on here... did you not SEE the train tracks and research the neighborhood before you bought your home? No? too damn bad.
Its called LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION you nerd. Want to bet that the taxpayers are subsidizing the mortgage/rent too.
All well and good till someone dies Train’s have horns for a reason.
The idea that loud horns are needed at every railroad crossing day and night is some sort of “big government” thing. We travel in cars that have good soundproofing and listen to the radio, so most of the time it’s difficult to hear anything outside. Flashing lights and guard rails, especially in urban areas, make a lot more sense.
$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.
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.
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.
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.”
That would be quite a surprise since the tracks are three miles from here.