Trains will travel a little quieter

Nearly three years after Union Pacific trains once again began rumbling down the 900 South rail line, west-side residents are finally going to get some peace and quiet — relatively speaking.

After working several years to establish a so-called "quiet zone" along the line, which runs close to west-side homes, city officials finally have the work complete.

Thursday the final plan was presented to the City Council, which informally approved of the zone and forwarded the plan for a formal vote Tuesday. "It's going to help people in Poplar Grove for miles around," City Councilman Van Turner said.

After that vote, Union Pacific will have 15 days before it must start employing quiet zone policies along the 900 South line, which runs through residential neighborhoods from 700 West to Redwood Road, DJ Baxter, senior advisor to Mayor Rocky Anderson, said.

So in a scant three weeks residents will have some respite from the loud train horns that have been sounding just feet from their bedroom windows at all hours of night and day.

Instead of horns Union Pacific engineers will ring old-fashioned train bells, which are much quieter, and new electronic gates at intersections will offer similar bell sounds to warn of approaching trains.

"It will help a lot because those horns are pretty loud when you're trying to sleep or talk on the phone or watch TV," local resident Janette Gonzales said. "Like we were even watching the presidential debate and we couldn't hear it because of the horns."

While a few west-side residents are complaining that the zones aren't really quiet zones because the conductors still ring bells, Gonzales said the zones are still welcome.

"(The bells) are not anything near as bad as the horns and whistles, I mean, you can probably sleep though those (bells)," she said.

Still the trains will keep rumbling, and residents will still have to live with trains shaking their homes.

Normally, quiet zones have to be established by federal law, but a federal rule creating such zones is taking a long time to formalize. So city administrators worked a deal with state officials to create the local quiet zone until the federal rule is established.

The city spent $700,000 to create the zones. The money was spent to purchase new gates for quiet zone intersections that prevent cars from moving around downed arms and provide more warning to pedestrians.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com