Quiet Zones Cause Uproar for People in Moorhead

Moorhead is looking into making trains go quiet when they roll through town.
 
But proposed quiet zones are being met with criticism from some in the community.

Quiet zones are designed to eliminate the need for trains to blow their horns.

At a public hearing, some people in Moorhead say horns are the least of their concerns.
 
“You can’t hear yourself think when they’re going by,” says Moorhead resident Sylvia Mehl.
 
Trains rumbling down the track are a problem in Moorhead.
 
“Very big issue,” Mehl adds. “We’ve lived there for 30 years. There was no issue in the beginning.”
 
An increase in train traffic and local complaints have the city looking into quiet zones.
 
“Initiated by calls we’ve received from the public,” explains Moorhead City Planner Bob Zimmerman, “complaints about train whistle noise.”
 
Quiet zones are being proposed on 20th Street down to 40th Avenue South, and on Southeast Main Avenue.

Medians and gates would end the need for trains to blow horns at crossings.

But officials say it’s not up to them.
 
“That’s actually the big question,” Zimmerman says, “and why we’re having the public meeting.”
 
The train noise issue boils down to what so many other civic controversies boil down to: money.
 
The project could be funded by the state, or a special assessment that could cost property owners more than $1,200.
 
Mehl asserts, “I am not just willing to pay a thousand dollars for something that isn’t going to matter one bit.”
 
Morningside neighborhood resident Elaine Russell says she already paid $400 to put up quiet zones in her neighborhood.

She doesn’t want to be charged again.
 
“You don’t go back and say ‘Oops, we missed something. Here’s another bill for another $1,200,'” she says.
 
Plus, locals say quiet zones don’t solve the real problem.
 
“It hasn’t done a darn thing,” Russell adds. “It doesn’t do anything.”
 
“It’s not the whistles and the horns that bother me,” says Mehl. “It’s the constant trains. They rattle, bang across.”
 
Even city officials admit, the majority of feedback has been against the plan.
 
But local leaders say if the project moves forward, and that’s a big if, construction would be scheduled for some time in 2018.