If Pearl District residents want to hear the train whistle a-blowin they’ll have to go elsewhere. Today, Oregon Department of Transportation signed off on the Quiet Zone, prohibiting train engineers from blowing their horns as they approach all roadway/railroad crossings in the Union Station vicinity.
Rich Newlands, Portland Bureau of Transportation, got the okay to submit the Notice of Establishment to the Federal Railroad Administration and he could hardly wait to get the document in the mail. “It’s a nice way to end the week,” he said.
The Pearl District Quiet Zone will officially begin 21 days from the date stamp on the envelope, which means residents of the former industrial zone can expect whistle-less nights by the end of August.
Median barriers at crossings prevent drivers from going around crossing gates.
The cost for adapting three roadway/railroad crossings in the Pearl District is estimated to be just under $280,000. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) is hoping to have the final cost determined within a month.
“It’s been an interesting project,” says Eric Jacobson, Project Manager with PDC, a funding partner on the project with Hoyt Street Properties. “I look forward to this happening and improving the quality of life for residents.”
Barbara Quinn, chair of the Friends of Cathedral Park Neighborhood Association (FCNPA) wishes Jacobson’s sentiment applied to her community. She says FCPNA has been trying to get a Quiet Zone in St. Johns for 10 years.
“The Pearl’s ‘fast track’ quiet zone is pretty frustrating to neighbors here,” wrote Quinn in an email to Neighborhood Notes. “When you look back at the 10 years of FCPNA meeting discussions with the Port of Portland, Toyota and Union Pacific Railroad representatives and especially when looking at meeting notes, one could easily interpret much of the discussion as stalling. The ‘fast track’ situation just makes it seem more obvious.”
Improvements include proper sidewalks and a median barrier strip.
Jacobson says he’s been working on the Pearl District Quiet Zone for 2.5 years and doesn’t have anything to compare the project timeline to.
The 21-day wait will give railroads time to adjust their honking habits—at least when approaching the Pearl District.
I applaud the efforts to make the Pearl a little more liveable and doing it with a conscientious eye on the budget. It will be nice not to have your eardrums blown out at all hours of the day. That said, I think the city needs to now redirect its efforts to providing SAFE railroad crossings for pedestrians and cyclists.
Having lived in this area for almost two years and walking my dog twice a day, every day, along Naito and the waterfront, I cross railroad tracks all the time. And I've been trapped at railroad crossings while freight trains crawl by inch-by-inch and stop altogether for no apparent reason (I'm sure there is a reason but none apparent to the people trapped at the crossing). As such, I've seen all sorts of rational people do very stupid things. I've seen every sort of person try to beat a train-- joggers, cyclists, people dragging their pets, mothers pushing babies in strollers!! Why? Because they know if they don't go, they could be stuck at a crossing for 15 minutes or more! This weekend I actually witnessed a cyclist climb on top and over a stopped flatbed train car with his bike in tow to get across the tracks. I don't know why he decided to do this -- maybe he was late for work, or had an appointment, or was simply impatient. But the bottom line is that he thought it was worth the risk and there were no other safe options.
So my challenge to the city is to consider building more pedestrian overpasses along these actively used routes; bridges that enable people to safely get across busy railroad crossings without risking their lives and loved ones.