01043952

Component

One important aspect of downtown redevelopment is attracting residences to support downtown businesses and make the downtown an alive and vibrant place after working hours. In the Fargo-Moorhead metropolitan area, attracting residences is greatly complicated by the presence of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad through both downtowns. With the BNSF mainline and a local line sending about 85 trains a day and night through the 20 at grade crossings in the downtowns, each sounding it’s horn at least twice at each crossing, living in the downtown can be a vexing experience. In order to help entice residential development in and near the downtowns, the “Quiet Rail” project was conceived. The aim of this project is to “quiet” the train horns through the downtowns through safety enhancements. In addition, the downtowns have experienced a number of fatalities at rail grade crossings (four in the last year) which added to the importance of these safety enhancements. The project has been a long and difficult process, largely due to the lack of Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) regulations on the subject until late in 2003. In addition, the scale and scope of the area under consideration was the largest ever considered for a “quiet rail” project. An unprecedented project affecting twenty crossings, in two cities, two states, two state DOTs, and two FRA districts raised a number of critical issues — how, by who, how much and when? An initial application for the quiet zone, spelling out safety enhancements at crossings to be quieted, was made to the FRA in the pre-regulation environment. This was reviewed and approved by the FRA. This application to the FRA detailed safety enhancements at all twenty crossings along both rail lines in the two downtowns. Making these crossings safer than they were at present was the most important criterion. A variety of treatments was used at the crossings. Supplementary Safety Devices (SSMs) and Alternative Safety Devices (ASMs) treatments were designed to meet the specific needs of each crossing. Each crossing was viewed as unique, requiring site-specific treatments to insure maximum safety. Seven of the Moorhead crossings were proposed for four quad gates, while two crossings were proposed to be three gate crossings with a median on the same side as the single gate. Video monitoring was also proposed at the crossings to tape and analyze driver behavior prior to any changes made at the crossings. On December 18, 2003, the FRA issued its preliminary rule on silencing train horns. FRA indicated to the Fargo-Moorhead Metro COG that it would bring its quiet rail initiative under the new rule requiring a revised application, even with a pre-approved application. After extensive discussions with BNSF and the FRA, the COG decided to wait until the final train horn rule is issued on December 18, 2004 to develop and submit a final application. Waiting until the final rule would allow the application to be developed in an environment of regulatory certainty as to what expectations would be.

01043941

English

10p

2004

9th National Conference on Transportation Planning for Small and Medium-Sized Communities

CD-ROM

Figures (3) ; Tables (1)

Central business districts; Freight trains; Grade crossing protection systems; Highway safety; Horns; Noise; Railroad grade crossings; Redevelopment; Video cameras

BNSF Railway

Fargo (North Dakota); Moorhead (Minnesota)

Energy; Environment; Freight Transportation; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Railroads; Safety and Human Factors; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

TRIS, TRB

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