Pleasanton resident proposes city apply for railroad quiet zone

A Pleasanton man is proposing that city officials step in to apply for a "quiet zone" for trains on tracks running through the town. (Photo by Jad Limcaco / Upsplash)

By Roger Sims, Journal staff

linncountyjournal@icloud.com

PLEASANTON – With the exceptions of Mound City, Blue Mound and Linn Valley, every city in Linn County is a railroad town. Whether it’s the Union Pacific tracks running down through Parker and Centerville or the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) tracks through La Cygne, Pleasanton and Prescott, the one thing those cities have in common is noise.

Whether it’s the rumbling that shakes the walls of city hall in La Cygne or the midnight whistle-blowing in Parker, those “magic carpets made of steel” are responsible, at worst, for insomnia and anxiety, or at best, residents who have become desensitized and who barely give a second thought to the rumbling and whistle-blowing anymore.

Pleasanton resident Charley Leonard is accustomed to noisy machinery. Until his recent retirement he worked in local quarries, and quarries are anything but quiet. But Leonard and many of his friends are tired of what they see as unwarranted noise when a train blows through town.

So he decided to do something about it, and he began research into railway “quiet zones,” or areas where engineers routinely sounding horns for a half mile of track is prohibited except in certain cases.

Quiet zones in Kansas are governed by federal regulation. Although train engineers are required to sound their horns 15 to 20 seconds before reaching crossings, city or county governments can apply for an exception.

Areas considered for quiet zones must meet the following requirements:

• All crossings in the proposed zone must have active safety devices including flashing lights and gates.

• All of the crossing in the proposed zone must have barriers in place to prevent drivers from circumventing the gates.

• The quiet zone must span a minimum of a half mile.

• There have been no fatalities in the proposed zone for the last five years.

Even after a quiet zone is established, engineers can still sound horns if there is an emergency or if track maintenance crews are present.

Hoping to get the process of applying started, Leonard appeared before the Pleasanton City Council on Monday, May 18, and presented his plan. If the council decides to apply for the quite zone, it would need to make a formal request for a feasibility study.

The study would need to use the Federal Railroad Administration’s (FRA) Quiet Zone Calculator to determine if the crossings meet the agency’s standards. The city would have to pay for any improvements and would need to get the FRA’s approval.

Along with that plan he also promised that the council’s constituents would react favorably if they workedmeet the quiet zone requirements.

Leonard suggested that the best way to apply for the quiet zone would be to make Ninth and 10th streets one way where they cross the tracks. One of the requirements of applying for the quiet zone is restricted access to the tracks by traffic.

To leave Ninth and 10th streets two-way would be expensive because the railroad would require the city to pay for the more costly crossing bars that would need to block off both lanes on a two-way street.

However, he said by using concrete barriers similar to those on the lot of Fabcon, a precast concrete company just south of town, to block any attempts to go around the crossing arms while narrowing those crossings to a single lane.

As is often the case, except for a “thank you,” council members did not react to Leonard’s presentation. But he is hopeful they would follow up on his suggestion.

One thing city officials may have to consider in making an application is that there could be a downside.

Applying for a quiet zone brings the risk of being forced to close the number of crossings, according to La Cygne City Clerk Jodi Wade. About four years ago, a city resident approached the city council there about applying for a quiet zone.

Three main streets cross the BNSF tracks in La Cygne: Market Street/Kansas Highway 152, Swan Street to the north and Fourth Street to the south. A road west of Lincoln Street also goes over the track.

Wade said the city has not wanted to risk closing any of those crossings. The item remained on the council’s to-do list on their agenda for a few years. And while Wade keeps a file of information on applying for the quiet zone status.

Pleasanton has five crossings, including Second Street, Sixth Street, Park Street in addition to Ninth and 10th.