While catching up on Tulsa news, I found this tidbit on downtown Tulsa finally completing improvements that will eliminate trains having to blast their horns as they pass restaurants, lofts and businesses:
“Oh, it will be a great improvement,” says downtown developer Michael Sager. “I mean, the trains are wonderful as they are on the open plans echoing. They knock you out of bed at night, so it will be a great improvement for all these residential projects.”
Workers at nearby restaurants say no train whistles will be nice. The new gates that are going up will keep cars and people from going across the tracks when trains are coming through, also making crossings safer.
“Train intersections, people get antsy and want to take off,” says Jamie Young with the Blue Dome Restaurant. “Every so often, somebody gets unlucky about hitting that train intersection.”
A similar effort is getting underway for Oklahoma City, with Urban Neighbors and Downtown OKC Inc. both wanting to end the whistles and horns as trains pass through along the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks between NW 13 and NW 6.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
I saw that and thought the same thing… The train moving through can be a really annoying thing- blasts through Bricktown (interrupting music venues and boat tours) and even worse blasts through the residential districts north of Bricktown. So it would be good to get it taken care of.
Seems like Tulsa first talked about that months or a year ago- does it really take that long to get all that done?
August 24th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
You won’t like hearing this… but…. Tulsa began pursuing a quiet zone in 2004.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
That’s stupid
Just tell them not to honk. It’s easy.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Yeah, but then you get those folks who see the train crossing bar lower and they think that’s a good time to rush through. Dennis Leary would tell you that having the car get hit, and the motorist killed, is good - “thinning of the herd.” But it’s a traumatic thing for the train engineer, so we’re stuck with the horn blowing - the equivalent of saying “I’m really coming, you fool, get out of the way.”
August 24th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
After living in Mesta Park for 3 years, I honestly don’t notice the horns much any more, but, having eaten outdoors at Iguana on NW 9th or down in Norman at Benvenutis, I can understand the concerns of the immediate neighbors. As a reference - we average 45 trains per day, with approximately 10 crossings between 7th & 16th. Federal Law requires 20 seconds of horn per train, per crossing, which means we have approximately 2.5 hours of train horn a day.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
I’ve lived on NW 19th or 20th Streets since 1983, now between Walker & Dewey, but earlier in the “Heritage Hills East” area immediately west of Broadway and a stone’s throw from the RR tracks. It is rare that I ever notice the sounds, unless I’m sitting on my front porch. Guess I’m used to the sounds and they don’t bother me at all. Of course, when one is inside one’s home, outside noises are muffled considerably.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
This isn’t just a “Bricktown” or “Triangle” issue. I live in far west Downtown OKC and I can still hear the train at 2am blasting through my 10 inch concrete walls. Train noise can be heard for miles at a loud level. I applaud Urban Neighbors and others for working on tackling this issue.
October 10th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
If Oklahoma City is serious about developing it’s downtown district, something needs to be done about this immediately.