Billings, Mont., businesses, residents hail new quiet zone

Lynda Frost, a spokeswoman for Montana Rail Link, said trains traveling through downtown Billings, Mont., were supposed to stop sounding their horns Sept. 18, one minute after midnight, according to The Gazette. And those are some big horns, emitting blasts of 96 to 110 decibels, as per federal regulations. A subway train, at a distance of 200 feet, registers at about 95 decibels, while 110 decibels is comparable to a power saw three feet away.

The quiet zone was pushed
for six years by the Downtown Billings Partnership and ultimately involved the
city of Billings, the state Department of Transportation, MRL, BNSF and the
Federal Railroad Administration.

For the quiet zone to
pass muster with the railroads and the Federal Railroad Administration,
railroad crossings at north 27th, 28th and 29th streets had to be substantially
upgraded. As part of the $1.47-million project, 24 vehicular and pedestrian
gate arms, as well as new fencing and electronic equipment, were installed at
the three intersections.

The improvements make it
impossible for cars to weave through the gates anymore, and chain-link
"pedestrian mazes" virtually force people to look up and down the
tracks before crossing. The electronic equipment included underground sensors
that control the arms and synchronize train movements with traffic lights on
Montana Avenue.

Some of the last of the
funds generated by the downtown tax increment district were used to pay for the
project.

Greg Krueger, development
director for the Downtown Billings Partnership, said the quiet zone is likely
to spur new projects because old warehouses along the tracks are often ideal
for residential and restaurant development. Once the general economy starts to
improve, he expects to see a lot of activity near the tracks.

In Fargo, N.D., a much
larger quiet zone went into effect a few years ago, with noticeable results in
terms of safety and economic development, said David Anderson, president of the
Downtown Community Partnership there. Anderson said Fargo and its sister city,
Moorhead, Minn., spent $8 million to close or upgrade more than 20 railroad
crossings in an urban area that sees as many as 85 trains a day.

Even with the change,
engineers will have the discretion to blow their horns in an emergency, when
the warning devices aren’t working or when a switch engine is backing up. But,
in the most common situation, when the trains are backing up, the engineers
will only use three short blasts, as opposed to the two longs-one short-one
long previously used by trains in transit, MRL’s Frost said. And, while the
trains won’t use their horns passing through the downtown, they will still
sound them at the crossing on Moore Lane, west of downtown.