(The Chicago Daily Herald posted the following article by Joseph Ryan on its website on December 18.)
CHICAGO — For nearly a decade, suburban officials have been struggling to silence piercing train horns under a federal law that requires engineers to sound their horns at rail crossings.
Even towns with horn bans already in place have feared the expansive law would take them away.
But Wednesday the federal agency in charge of railroads turned over a proposal that is receiving initial support from area officials.
Under the plan, most towns would keep their downtowns and residential neighborhoods free of train horns, and other communities would get clear guidelines for creating new quiet zones.
“(With the previous law) there would never be a letup on the horn from here to Chicago,” said Palatine Village President Rita Mullins, who lobbied the federal government on the issue for several years. “This is much better.”
Palatine has outlawed train horn-blowing for 40 years. But in 1994, Congress passed a law requiring trains to sound their horns at every rail crossing.
Since then, the federal agency that oversees the law has been working (news – web sites) to implement it in ways that current “no-horn” towns could keep quiet, and new quiet zones could be created.
In 2000, the U.S. Department of Transportation developed a proposal that required four gates at railroad crossings in towns with horn restrictions.
Those gates, which block vehicles across all lanes and on both sides, can cost more than $500,000.
With such a heavy price tag, local officials across the nation balked, requiring a new solution.
The new proposal would allow towns to use a combination of four-sided gates, camera enforcement, stationary horns, high curbs and other traffic-halting designs to keep or create horn-free areas.
Under the new proposal, engineers can always sound horns in an emergency.
The plan will take effect Dec. 17, 2004, though it could change slightly by then, said Warren Flatau, a Federal Railroad Administration spokesman.
About two-thirds of towns across the country with quiet zones would keep them under the new proposal, Flatau said. The rest would have up to eight years to add safety features.
Mullins said from what she has read of the plan, Palatine would likely stay quiet.
Arlington Heights Village President Arlene Mulder’s initial reaction was also positive.
“I’m pleased we have some options here. It is very welcomed,” said Mulder, who also pushed for changes in the original plan.
Arlington Heights has had a policy to stifle train horns for nearly 20 years.
Meanwhile, area officials that have been trying to ban horns have been stuck in a bureaucratic quagmire since 1994. With no rules in place, railroads wouldn’t recognize new quiet zones regardless of new safety measures.
“We were very much in regulation limbo here,” said James Willey, mayor of Elburn, which has upward of 120 trains come through his downtown daily. “Now we can actually move forward.”
Willey said Elburn will likely install cameras for ticket enforcement to help qualify for quiet zone status, which would not have been possible in the 2000 plan.
Barrington, which has two railroad crossings, may also soon be looking at implementing a no-horn policy.
“Nobody wants to hear trains blasting through the middle of town every night,” said Barrington Village President Marshall Reagle.
Mullins said it’s not yet time to celebrate, since the proposal hasn’t been set in stone or fully analyzed.
“Come Christmas 2004, that will be the test on how residents are impacted,” she said.