Poll: Most want trains silenced

Results are in for the Helena, Mont., Citizens Council survey on a quiet zone in the city. More than half of the respondents described noise from trains as a "quality of life issue," the Independent Record reports. The majority of people who responded to a Helena Citizens Council survey this summer supported the idea of using taxpayer money to implement a quiet zone in the city, saying the sounds of train horns pose quality of life issues for area residents, especially at night.

"It irritates me so much,
I wonder if the train engineer is simply antagonizing the neighborhood," wrote
one respondent.

The HCC posted the
voluntary survey online in early July and is still adding a few stray entries
to its final tallies. Of the 481 people who’d responded by August 18, about 53
percent said the train horns are a problem at night and 15 percent said they’re
a problem all day long, submitting an assortment of anecdotal evidence about
spouses, children and babies who are frequently awoken by the sound.

More than 60 percent of respondents
said they would describe train horns as a "quality of life issue" and about 25
percent called it a "health issue." Of the 444 people who responded to one
particular question, close to 43 percent said the noise from the horns is a "significant
problem" and 18 percent deemed it the "No. 1 problem in Helena."

Nearly 55 percent said
that Helena taxpayers should pay for the development of a "quiet zone."

The Federal Railroad
Administration allows local governments to designate zones in which engineers
are prohibited from sounding train horns during certain hours of the day. In
order to do that, they must implement additional safety measures at railway
crossings, such as four-arm crossing gates, median barriers to prevent people
from driving around the gates, and wayside horns, which are placed at the
intersections so that the noise is only directed toward the roads near the
crossing.

In 2007, the Helena City
Commission discussed the possibility of creating quiet zones, but eventually
abandoned the idea after estimates placed the cost of doing so at between
$500,000 and $1 million. Last fall, Billings created a quiet zone that included
three railway crossings in its downtown area, a $1.47-million endeavor that
included the installation of new fencing, electronic equipment and gates.

For all five railway
crossings that fall within Helena city limits, the HCC survey estimates that it
would cost $100,000 for medians and curbs, $500,000 for wayside horns and $2.5
million for enhanced gates.

HCC members say they plan
to pass the final survey results on to the Helena City Commission to let them
decide what action – if any – they want to take.

Eric Regensburger, a
state hydrogeologist and member of the MidTowne and Sixth Ward Neighborhood
Association, spurred the current push to look into establishing quiet zones,
but admitted that it’s not the best time to ask the city to fund the effort,
since it’s anticipating budget shortfalls for the upcoming fiscal year.
Nevertheless, he said, the city’s support would be crucial as entities like the
neighborhood association look for other possible funding sources.

Regensburger said the
train horns are an "archaic method of safety" and that it would be ideal to
implement less intrusive strategies that are just as effective.

But not everyone is ready
to rally against the sound of the trains. Nearly 30 percent of survey
respondents said they don’t think the horns are a problem at any time of the
day. About 34 percent said that a quiet zone project should not be funded.

Scattered amongst the
many noise complaints were comments from people who dismissed the issue, saying
the horns are simply necessary for safety, whereas others said they found the
sounds comforting and nostalgic

"Growing up in Livingston
next to the tracks, I miss hearing the train horns. I wish they were louder,"
wrote one respondent.

There are five railroad
crossings in Helena city limits – on Joslyn Street, North Benton Avenue,
National Avenue, Montana Avenue and Roberts Street. A crossing on Carter Street
falls outside the city’s formal boundaries. Survey respondents ranked the
National intersection as the crossing of most concern, followed by the one on
Joslyn. The Benton crossing was ranked last.

Montana Rail Link
spokeswoman Lynda Frost said that, on average, between 16 and 20 trains come
through Helena each day. That number has increased recently, she said, mostly
due to additional coal and grain trains.