SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Train traffic along Salt Lake City’s 900 South will not stop completely, but city officials have reached an agreement with Union Pacific to make it less disruptive, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
If given the green light by the City Council, the agreement will require Union Pacific to respect a “quiet zone” between 700 West and Redwood Road, divert high-level nuclear waste away from 900 South and limit train speeds to less than 30 mph.
Together, Salt Lake City and Union Pacific also would install safety fencing along the line to discourage crossings anywhere except at designated street crossings. D.J. Baxter, senior adviser to the mayor, says Union Pacific rejected costly mitigation measures such as sound walls and pedestrian bridges.
“We hope the community will accept and support this agreement so we can move forward with implementation and the second phase of our negotiations with Union Pacific,” Mayor Rocky Anderson said Thursday.
City officials say the second round of negotiations with Union Pacific will focus on reducing or eliminating trains on the 900 South line, and will require “more time, funding and federal support.”
“There is no deadline for the second phase, but I have already sent UP an outline of things we would like to discuss,” said Baxter.
People living near the tracks have battled for more than a year to keep trains from disrupting their sleep, threatening their children’s safety and lowering their property values.
The new agreement to ease some of those negative effects “is the least the mayor can do,” said Michael Clara, secretary of the Glendale Community Council.
“My neighbors and I maintain that the trains shouldn’t be there, and the city has the full responsibility for their complete removal from our community,” Clara added.
State Sen.-elect James Evans represents many 900 South neighborhoods and says his constituents welcome any measures to reduce the numbers and noise of trains but expect to see further reductions.
“The mayor’s office could stop these trains if they really, really wanted to,” he said.
Anderson visited the west-side Glendale and Poplar Grove areas Saturday to update residents on the city’s effort to mitigate the negative effects of the reactivated rail line.
That same day, seven locomotive cars derailed just east of 700 West.
City officials will meet with neighbors Monday at 6:30 a.m. in the Sorenson Multi-Cultural Center, 855 W. California Ave., to discuss the proposed agreement.