Railroad Quiet Zones (Austin, Alamo, Vidor: condos, houses, neighborhoods)

[SnappyBob]

Any opinions on the city making some crossings "Railroad quiet Zones"? A link to the story is below if you are not familiar with the subject.

MySA.com: Metro | State (http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA112007.trains.KENS.1e494348.html - broken link)

[ShaneSA]

What the article did not say is that the owners/builders of Vidorra Condos is paying a big chunk of change(amount unknown) to have the crossings closed because it will disturb the new condo owners.
What came first? The houses and neighborhoods or the trains?
The revitalization of the east side will stop unless they build tunnels or overpasses to keep those areas connected.
The owners of Vidorra should pay for that(although it would cost alot more) instead of stopping the train horns.

[Chakapu]

Oh lord, don't get me started. What an assinine project. Why not actually do something about the trains, instead of cutting out access to residents?

We live with the trains. yes, they are annoying as can be, but you get used to them. I'm more bothered by the potential for derailment - which happened 2x in this area in one summer, with a 3rd accident in the south part of the county that same summer. They really need to reroute these trains - no reason for them to go straight through downtown residential areas.

But cut off access for residents because they can't be bothered to re-route or at the very least make overpasses? I'm disgusted by the owners of Vidorra who clearly have no clue they are actually building in a community of people who LIVE there. this is not a solution.

[SnappyBob]

My feelings exactly I just didn't want to be the first to say it. The city didn't care who was losing sleep over the train whistles until the condo deal came up. Now they are ready to do anything they can to keep the condo folks happy. What about the other parts of town that don't like train whistles. Will they silence them there too? I lived next to train tracks for several years. It was bothersom at first but you get used to it. Really, people would come over and ask "How do you stand that noise?" when the train horn would blow. I would reply "What noise?" It would take me a moment realize that a train was going by.

Revitalization of the east side has never been anything other than welfare for the rich. When they built the Alamo Dome they led the residents to the east to believe that they would be able to sell their property for a good price and finally move up in the world. All they did was move them out. A few years ago you could buy one of those houses for a few hundred dollars. All you had to do was get it out of there to make room for development. Now they want to further isolate the people that are left just so they can pasify the rich on the cheap.

[Insomniac]

I think having UP relocate its tracks outside the downtown area would be the best thing. Though I have no idea how feasible that would actually be.

[Chakapu]

Originally Posted by SnappyBob

My feelings exactly I just didn't want to be the first to say it. The city didn't care who was losing sleep over the train whistles until the condo deal came up. Now they are ready to do anything they can to keep the condo folks happy. What about the other parts of town that don't like train whistles. Will they silence them there too? I lived next to train tracks for several years. It was bothersom at first but you get used to it. Really, people would come over and ask "How do you stand that noise?" when the train horn would blow. I would reply "What noise?" It would take me a moment realize that a train was going by.

Well, you can tell I feel strongly about it ;-)

A few years ago there was a lot of talk about re-routing the trains for safety reasons, after those 3 accidents. When I first heard about the new 'quiet zone' I hadn't heard the whole story and just kept hearing how great it would be w/o the train horns. My first thought was 'great, they're finally re-routing the trains!' Wrong.....

It just infuriates me that they could care less about the people who live there.

I don't love the train horns. We're right in the middle of the U so we get a lot of them, but you learn to adapt. I rarely notice them now. Actually, I do notice when they're *not* there - like when they had the accidents. It was quiet for about an hour, then we heard all the sirens....

[neddy]

You know when I moved up here to Leander outside to the north of Austin all the railroad crossing have the double gates on both sides of the tracks and the trains are prohibited on blowing horns unless they see something on the tracks. Still feel them but not hear.I know for the folks rerouting the trains away from those areas would be best but maybe this could be an alterative..

[SnappyBob]

Rerouting the trains away from populated areas is of course the most attractive option but how would that work. I must admit that I am fairly clueless as to the intricacies of the railroad freight moving industry. Perhaps someone on the board is knowledgable in this. I know that trains haul freight. They haul raw materials for industry which in turn at some point make it to the consumer in one form or another. They also haul consumer goods to retailers to be sold directly to consumers. Having said that they must unload these goods somewhere. I would assume that some boxcars are removed from the train and diverted to warehouses along the tracks and unloaded and later put back into service. Some factories are perhaps stategicly located on rail lines so they can be supplied with the raw materials for their particular manufacuring process. I would guess that big box retailers have their goods trucked from the warehouses to the retail outlets. If the tracks were to be moved to an unpopulated or low population area I would think all things dependent on the rail system (warehouses and factories) would have to move there also. In order for the reroute to be affective long term buffer areas along the tracks would have to be maintained so that the area remained a low population area. I'm just rambling since, as I said, I really don't know how all this works. I may be all wet here but it sure seems like a lot of trouble to me. Seems like it would be easier to move the people away from the tracks.

[imaterry78259]

Originally Posted by SnappyBob

My feelings exactly I just didn't want to be the first to say it. The city didn't care who was losing sleep over the train whistles until the condo deal came up. Now they are ready to do anything they can to keep the condo folks happy. What about the other parts of town that don't like train whistles. Will they silence them there too? I lived next to train tracks for several years. It was bothersom at first but you get used to it. Really, people would come over and ask "How do you stand that noise?" when the train horn would blow. I would reply "What noise?" It would take me a moment realize that a train was going by.

Revitalization of the east side has never been anything other than welfare for the rich. When they built the Alamo Dome they led the residents to the east to believe that they would be able to sell their property for a good price and finally move up in the world. All they did was move them out. A few years ago you could buy one of those houses for a few hundred dollars. All you had to do was get it out of there to make room for development. Now they want to further isolate the people that are left just so they can pasify the rich on the cheap.

Your message proves the old Texas adage-Money Talks and Bull----- Walks

[pr57001]

Even if it took the condo project to get it done, is that not still a win for those that live there (in the condo or not)? Whether it is the best solution or not, building overpasses OR rerouting the tracks is not a financially viable option for the city or developer.