Madison residents will be able to sleep more soundly now that a major federal bill produced a quiet result.
The Federal Railroad Administration passed a law Friday extending the current train-whistle ban in Madison for 14 months. After the allotted time, however, Madison must comply with federal standards for railroad crossings.
According to George Twigg, spokesperson for Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the City of Madison has until July 2006 to comply with FRA standards based on the type of railroad crossing, amount of traffic at each crossing, visibility and other specific details. These standards allow for \quiet zones,"" which are crossings with certain safety improvements.
""They've given us more than a year to start the plans for changing or creating the zones,"" said Twigg, ""and we're going to work to put as many together as we can, as soon as possible.""
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, the main supporter for the initial train whistle ban, said the news from Washington was that Madison only had a few months left on the current ban. But now Madison has about a year left to make things ""quiet.""
""The federal law dictates that train engineers cannot blow their horns or whistles at any city of Madison crossing that has either gates and/or flashing lights,"" Verveer said. Verveer added that in case of an emergency, trains are still allowed to blow their whistles.
According to Verveer, the city will be investing money, including state funds, to put in new gates and lights to start the process of establishing quiet zones. Verveer lives in the Bassett neighborhood, where many students live, and knows that not everybody is fortunate enough to be exempt from the sound of a billowing train whistle.
Brian Rolfs, UW-Madison senior and a railroad track neighbor, has come to appreciate a ban he was unaware of.
""You can never fully appreciate a ban you don't know about until you're woken up at 6 a.m. on a Saturday by a loud whistle,"" said Rolfs. ""If Madison doesn't build some quiet zones and train whistles start to blow, I'm seriously considering transferring somewhere else.\
