Trains, trains and - trains

It might seem ironic a town that started life thanks to a nearby railroad would have trouble with trains.

Such has been the city of Cheney’s lot lately, but through the efforts of city and railroad officials, some of those problems may be finding resolution. For starters, take the ongoing issue of train horns.

With four at-grade crossings on two main lines operated by separate railroads, Burlington Northern Santa Fe close to First Street and Union Pacific a bit further to the east, horns alerting drivers at those crossings of approaching train traffic are heard almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Doing something about those horns, heard throughout the city, has been the subject of phone calls to City Hall and a few citizen appearances at City Council meetings.

According to federal regulations, train engineers must sound their horns at least 15 seconds, and no more than 20 seconds, in advance of all public grade crossings. The best solution to the issue of train horns would be silencing them by building grade separations so vehicular traffic would go under or over the tracks.

Recently, the city of Yakima completed such work for a price tag of $52 million, work paid for partly by state freight mobility grant money but also a good portion by the city itself, Cheney Mayor Tom Trulove said.

“It’s not something we are going to ever be able to do,” he added.

What the city is working on with BNSF is installing “quiet zones,” at the crossings. City officials approached BNSF about this prior to the railroad’s work last summer building a second, six-mile stretch of rail through town to handle heavier traffic requirements.

Trulove said the railroad originally wanted the city to install sets of “quad-arm” gates at the four crossings. Quad-arms would span both sides of the roadway, but at over $1 million each, were price prohibitive.

A second plan was developed where as part of the track construction BNSF built concrete barriers between the roadway travel lanes that stretch almost up to the tracks. This prevents vehicles from going around the extended crossing arms in order to cross the tracks before an oncoming train arrives.

Trulove said BNSF was able to build the barriers at Cheney-Plaza and Mullinix roads, but couldn’t install them at Cheney-Spangle Road due to truck traffic considerations surrounding the ADM Flour Mill and the Cheney Grain Growers elevator. Barriers were also not installed at Pine Street, the crossing serving the city’s Utility Building and wastewater treatment plant, because that would require rerouting of the street, costing millions of dollars.

While a start, the crossing barriers don’t necessarily create a quiet zone. Another step would be to install directional horns at the crossings that focus sound down onto the roadways, thus reducing the decibel level, and are activated by the locomotive engineer.

As part of the crossing upgrade, BNSF installed the circuitry to operate directional horns at the crossings. All Cheney needs to do is purchase the horns — at around $60,000 each — and pay for the hookup.

“The problem is, we can’t afford to buy them,” Trulove said.

Both Trulove and City Administrator Mark Schuller said there might be grant money available to purchase the horns, and that more discussion is taking place with BNSF. Both men praised the railroad in their dealings with the city, noting officials are much easier to contact and more forthcoming in discussions than in the past.

Part of that increased openness has led to BNSF conducting training on hazardous materials accident responses with Cheney, Spokane County Fire District 3 and other area firefighting personnel. Cheney Fire Chief Mike Winters said the training, which took place at Fire District 3’s facility, was very informative and involved discussion of firefighting resources available, local responses and learning about various railroad equipment.

Winters said they are also in the process of signing up through the Department of Homeland Security for access to Internet resources alerting local emergency personnel to information about rail cargo coming through the region such as contents and schedule. “They’re making an effort to help us out,” Winters said of BNSF.

John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.