February 27

Train Whistle Update

Ten months after first contacting the railroads and Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), we are about a step and a half closer to getting a Quiet Zone established in Security and Widefield.

I heard from residents who wanted to know why the trains were still blowing their horns after the crossings at Main and Fontaine had been rebuilt. Met with an engineer from Colorado Springs with some Quiet Zone experience, and received a thumbnail sketch of the process, a few names to contact and the advice that we would probably need to hire a consultant. Received a few more names and addresses from local developers who had dealt with the railroad and thought we were well on our way.

Those initial letters went out on May 2nd and here is a quick time line of the progress – assuming you call getting an education progress.

* The Union Pacific representative called, he had inspected the crossings and agreed it appeared everything required in the Quiet Zone Regulations appeared to be in place. But the tracks belong to BNSF and they would make the final determination.
* Mid June, after making no progress, I met with the County Administrator, County Attorney, and Department of Transportation folks to get their help. The goal was to have the application submitted by the end of August, which would then trigger a comment period.
* End of August came and we felt we were ready to submit the application, except we could not get the railroads, PUC, and Federal Railroad Association (FRA) to agree on a date for the mandatory on site meeting.
* We talked about submitting the application without the meeting to try to get particularly the FRA off the dime and commit to a date, but decided instead to offer them dates 2 and 3 months out. Still could not get them to commit.  
* In December, with still no date set for the site visit, we finally realized why the comment about hiring a consultant had been made.
* In January we advertised for consultants who had successfully completed such projects in Colorado. We were aware of three, two chose to submit proposals and one was selected.
* The consultant will do an initial site visit in March and has suggested (not guaranteed) that we could have the Quiet Zone established by mid summer.
* Along the way I have been contacted by many more residents in the Valley on this issue, including one who does not support this effort.
It shouldn’t be this hard. Recently an official in another county, when asked what his goals were for 2008, put “having the railroad call him back” first on his list. I can empathize.

CONTACT THE WRITER • HISEY4CD4@MSN.COM

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