City begins quiet zone discussion

The Ritzville City Council opened the floor to discussion on Sept. 17 in regards to designating the city as a quiet zone for trains traveling through Ritzville.

The topic was listed on the city council meeting agenda, under the discussion agenda section, and was led mostly by councilmember Dennis Chamberlain, who supports making Ritzville a quiet zone.

Under the Federal Railroad Administration's Train Horn Rule, which went into effect in 2005, locomotive engineers must begin to sound train horns at least 15 seconds-and no more than 20 seconds-in advance of all public grade crossings. The horns must be sounded in a standardized pattern of two long blasts, one short blast and then one more long blast. The pattern must be repeated or prolonged until the lead locomotive or lead cab car occupies the grade crossing.

The Train Horn Rule provides an opportunity for local governments in the United States to lessen the effects of train horn noise by establishing quiet zones. In a quiet zone, railroads are directed to cease the routine sounding of horns when approaching public highway-rail grade crossings. Train horns may still be used in emergency situations or to comply with other federal regulations or railroad operating rules.

Before a local government is able to establish a quiet zone, it is first required to implement more safety measures to mitigate the increased risk caused by the absence of a horn, such as installing medians on one or both sides of the tracks to prevent a motorist from driving around a lowered gate.

There are 11 local governments in Washington state that have adopted quiet zone rules, including Connell.

At the meeting, Chamberlain addressed the council, city officials and members of the public by prefacing that he was just looking to start a conversation and public discussion, and wasn't looking for the council to take a vote or choose sides on the spot.

He started by playing a video of a traffic stop at a railroad crossing in Washougal, which implemented a quiet zone in 2009. The video showed the difference in the level of noise between the stop at the Washougal crossing in contrast with stops at crossings in Ritzville. It also displayed the extra safety measures that Washougal had implemented.

As a transplant to Ritzville-despite living in the area for 21 years-Chamberlain says he has steered clear of certain hot-button issues in the area because he feels like it isn't his place to get involved. But the discussion centered around the quiet zone is different, he says.

"This one affects me and it affects many people adversely," said Chamberlain. "And that's why I have chosen to speak up on this. I know it can be a very controversial issue."

Chamberlain laid out several different reasons as to why making Ritzville a quiet zone would be beneficial to the residents and businesses of the city.

The first was that the horn is simply unpleasant and a nuisance to the individuals and businesses who are located in close proximity to the railroad tracks. Chamberlain conducted an informal survey of 11 business owners in the downtown area, and eight of the owners were in favor of the quiet zone, two were ambivalent and one was opposed to the quiet zone.

"When I watch my daughter walking my six-month-old granddaughter down by the train, she's holding her fingers on my granddaughter because that horn is blaring," said Chamberlain. "That affects me, and it has made me very motivated."

Chamberlain has also used a decibel scale at his house to register how loud the horn is, with the horn registering at around 100 decibels. According to the Train Horn Rule, the maximum volume level for the train horn is 110 decibels, while the minimum level is 96 decibels. According to the Office of Environmental Health and Safety at Yale University, the level at which sustained exposure may result in hearing loss is 80-90 decibels.

Another reason why Chamberlain believes a quiet zone would be beneficial is that he said study's he's read show that quiet zones are safer than non-quiet zones.

"A quiet zone is safer than what we currently have," said Chamberlain. "So in order to implement [a quiet zone], we're actually increasing safety. And that is a good thing."

According to analyses from the Federal Railroad Administration in 2011 and 2013, there was generally no statistically significant difference in the number of accidents that occurred before and after quiet zones were established.

Chamberlain also argued that implementing a quiet zone would be economically beneficial to businesses in downtown Ritzville and help increase property values for properties near the railroad tracks. He mentioned that a lot of money has and is being spent in downtown as of late.

"We have a lot of money going into downtown right now," said Chamberlain. "We have people investing in it, and that is a good thing. It's called revitalization."

He added that many downtown business owners believe that their second floors are vital to the ongoing revitalization efforts. He mentioned a time a while back when state officials were touring buildings downtown, and were on the second floor of a building when the train went by and the noise was "absolutely obnoxious" for the people touring the building.

"If we want to revitalize our downtown and our second floors-which I am trying to do [and others are trying to do]-that horn is detrimental, severely," Chamberlain said, also mentioning that there are just a couple of businesses and organizations still located on Railroad Avenue.

Attention turned to the logistics and cost of implementing the safety measures that are required to become a designated quiet zone. Chamberlain said he spoke with the mayor of Connell at the time when they implemented the safety measures, who told Chamberlain that they paid $7,000 per crossing.

Chamberlain doesn't expect that Ritzville would be able to pay that little due to logistical issues, and that they weren't looking that far ahead at this time. In the end, he said, the city, railroad company and others would negotiate what kind of safety measures would be required in order for Ritzville to be designated as a quiet zone.

"All I am after is support to where we can enter into these [negotiations] and get it moving forward," said Chamberlain. "I know that there is opposition in our town, but I want those people to think about the other people who are damaged by it. And I know those same people love our downtown and they love First Avenue, and they need to think about those things, also."