A bill intorduced yesterday into the Wyoming House of Representatives for the 2008 Budget Session by Rep. Ed Buchanan would appropriate $1 million to help communities create quiet zones or wayside horns at railroad crossings that would eliminate the need for trains to blow their horns before each crossing.

HB0108 was introduced into the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote yesterday. It would create a sub-account in the highway fund for the $1 million appropriation and establish a priority rating system that would depend on factors including population density, cost effectiveness, number of consecutive crossings and number of trains passing per day to distribute the funding. The bill also requires the Wyoming Department of Transportation to report to the Joint Transportation, Highways and Military Affairs Interim Committee each year on the expenditures from the sub-account.

Torrington Mayor Leroy Schafer, a supporter of the bill, said there are 10 cities and towns, each with more than 40 trains passing through on average every day, that would benefit from this bill: Gillette, Sheridan, Newcastle, Lusk, Torrington, Lingle, Fort Laramie, Glendo, Manville and Lost Springs. Schafer has been working closely with Mayor Peter Pier of Lusk and Mayor Jake Collins of Glendo as well as the Railroad Noise Committee on this issue.

“We’ve talked to folks up and down the line from the Nebraska border through Torrington up to Douglas, Lusk, up to the Powder River Basin, and everyone seems to like the proposal,” Buchanan said.

Newcastle is double-tracked and experiences more than 120 trains per day on average. Lusk is triple-tracked. According to Schafer, the entire Union Pacific line from Alliance, Neb., to Guernsey will be double-tracked by 2010, and Torrington will see an average of 90 trains per day once that project is finished.

Schafer said that a draft of the Railroad Controls Ltd. study, conducted in Torrington, shows an estimated cost to create quiet zones at area crossings would cost about $1.7 million. While that amount could not be paid in full using HB0108, the bill includes language stating the funding could be combined with other state and federal funding for safety devices.

The study also recorded that over 50 percent of the trains crossing through Torrington had horns louder than 110 decibels. Wayside horns placed at each intersection are the most common way of creating quiet zones. Wayside horns are directed at the roads themselves and are measured at 90 decibels.

A final copy of the report has not yet been compiled.

“Overall I think it would be a great thing for our community to have these quiet zones all through town,” Schafer said.

According to Trish Bohnenkamp, general manager of the Best Value Inn, the train horns have caused many people to keep traveling down the road before they stop at a hotel.

“People don’t want to stay in Torrington because of the noise,” Bohnenkamp said.

Bohnenkamp said many returning guests ask for the rooms farthest away from the tracks. Tammy Fegler, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express, also said that noise from the railroad has adversely affected business.

“That’s our major complaint from our guests,” Fegler said. “If people return here they ask for the north side of the building.”

Schafer and Buchanan are encouraging local residents to write to state senators and representatives or to call 307-777-8683 to express opinions on either side of the issue. Residents are particularly urged to contact Joint Appropriations Committee Members, since any bills with appropriations pass through that committee. Members are Sens. Phil Nicholas, Rae Lynn Job, Curt Meier, Ray Peterson and Charles Townsend, and Reps. Frank Philp, Rosie Berger, Steve Harshman, Alan Jones, Pete Jorgensen, Owen Petersen and Jane Warren.

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