Railroad quiet zone in three Chicago suburbs official on Jan. 28

Written by jrood

Trains traversing North Riverside, Riverside and Berwyn, Ill., along the Canadian National tracks will be prevented from sounding their horns at nine grade crossings in those towns starting Jan. 28, the Riverside Brookfield Landmark reports.  

On Jan. 15, U.S.
Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-3rd) announced that the quiet zone had been approved by
the Federal Railway Administration. Lipinski noted that it may take a week or
so for train engineers to fully comply with quiet zone rules and also stated
that train horns may still sound occasionally, since engineers can use
discretion on blowing horns within a quiet zone.

"It’ll still
happen if there are safety reasons," said Lipinski, "for example if
the engineer sees someone close to the tracks."

Barrier medians have
been built on Harlem Avenue south of 26th Street and on Cermak Road east of
First Avenue. The medians were required by the federal government as part of
the deal to create the quiet zone.

All three towns
shared the cost of constructing the medians. The other crucial piece of the
puzzle was the installation of "constant time" warning signals, a
significant expense picked up by the railroad after years of negotiation.

Lipinski lent his
legislative muscle to a local effort spearheaded by then-North Riverside Mayor
Richard Scheck to make the quiet zone a reality. Local mayors, with Lipinski’s
approval, lobbied Congress to approve the Canadian National’s purchase of the
EJ&E Railroad in 2008.

That purchase faced
stiff opposition from leaders in far northwest and west suburban Chicago, who
feared that increased train traffic in their towns would affect quality of life
there. Inner-ring suburbs and the
city of Chicago were not impressed, having trains on the Canadian National
tracks snarling traffic for many a decade. They supported the railroad merger,
which won approval in December 2008.

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