Yakima hushes train whistles

Published 9:00 pm Friday, March 1, 2002

Associated Press

YAKIMA — For the next four months at least, that lonesome whistle won’t blow when a train rolls through downtown.

An experimental quiet zone includes five railroad crossings where trains traditionally have warned automobiles of their approach.

But several motel owners along North First Street have complained about the noise, so the city, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and the Federal Railroad Administration negotiated a quiet zone plan that took effect at midnight Thursday.

The three parties split the cost of the $375,000 project, which set up mid- and side-street barriers to block cars attempting to evade crossing gates at Yakima and Lincoln avenues and B, D and I streets.

Video cameras installed at crossings monitor driver behavior, periodically sending photos to the Federal Railroad Administration in Washington, D.C., said Bob Desgrosellier, a city engineer.

If a similar project in Spokane is any indication, Yakima should see few problems, he said.

Spokane had about 1,100 violations — drivers going around crossing gates — in the first 90 days of the project there. But that number dropped to less than 100 after barriers were installed at crossings, he said.

If the experiment is successful in Yakima, the ban on downtown train whistles could become permanent, but that depends on drivers observing restrictions at railroad crossings.

"We want the public to be aware this is an active main line and to expect movement at any time in any direction," said Gus Melonas, a spokesman for BNSF.

"We average four to five trains daily on the line, sometimes more. With the absence of the whistle, we encourage the public to take extra-safe precautions."

Five vehicle fatalities occurred last year at railroad crossings in the state, Melonas said.

City council member John Puccinelli, who was mayor in 1998 when the city first sought to quiet train whistles, said people sleeping in North First Street motels really began to suffer from the noise when the railroad resumed long-haul freight service in 1996.

He hopes that whistle ban will help bring back some business for the motels.

"The next (high school basketball) tournament that comes to town won’t have whistles blowing," he said.

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