WAYSIDE HORNS IN DOWNTOWN PARKVILLE PROPOSED
The Parkville Board of Aldermen gave approval last week for city staff to pursue a grant opportunity to install “quiet” train horns at railroad crossings downtown.
The action, which occurred during a council chamber filled with residents attending a work session last Tuesday, March 5 calls for pursuing a grant to install “wayside horns,” designed to reduce noise by replacing traditional horns at railroad crossings. Instead, approaching trains activate wayside horns, sending the noise “down the road.”
For safety, regulations require wayside horns be coupled with existing flashing lights, gates, and warning timing devices. Research shows that while wayside horns don’t eliminate noise, they are much quieter than traditional existing horns, according to information from a city report, which quoted the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway (BSNF), which operates the trains and horns on the track. The tracks run across Main Street in Downtown Parkville, in and out of the English Landing Park area.
In February, the railway’s Public Projects and Infrastructure and Investments Team notified city officials of upcoming grant opportunities, which also included matching money to help fund a study of the re-location of the tracks.
The grant requires the city to pay 20 percent of the total cost of wayside horns.
In December of 2023, a transportation engineering consultant estimated it would cost the city $270,000 for each of the two railroad crossings (totaling $540,000) to construct/implement wayside horns in downtown. The city would also be responsible for ongoing maintenance of the wayside horn system, estimated at $5,000 per year.
For this estimate, the city’s local match requirement would be $108,000.
However, the other proposal, to move the tracks south of the city’s municipal parking lot and English Landing Center, was much more costly at an estimated $6-$8 million for only the railroad berm and new tracks. This would not include relocation or development of new roads and stream crossings, demolition of existing railroad, intersection improvements, Hwy. 9 improvements, relocation of the sewer pump station, acquisition and right of way costs, park redesign and construction, additional grading to match surrounding grads, stream crossings or road crossings, attorney fees, design fees, and other miscellaneous items.
In August of 2023, BNSF officials estimated a planning/feasiblity study for the railroad realignment project to cost upward of $200,000. For this cost estimate of the study alone, the city’s local match would be $40,000.
Some business owners, residents and Park University officials have complained for several years that the horns are disruptive and their desire to have them quieted. City officials have studied the issue since.
Alderman Brian Whitley reminded those present that aldermen and staff attended a demonstration of wayside horns several years ago in Lenexa, which were quieter than traditional train horns. However, Whitley said he has received emails from several Parkville residents stating they like the traditional horns.
During a section of the work session in which the public was allowed to speak, several residents, and one business owner, said they were in favor of the wayside horns. Alderman Doug Wylie reminded those in attendance that Park University officials had complained about the impact of the horns on music concerts and were forced to move some events due to the possibility of interference by the horns.
Former Parkville Mayor Kathy Dusenbery said the existing horns are so loud they interrupt her group’s pickleball games in the park. “We stop our play and plug our ears,” she said, adding that “everybody would appreciate the wayside horns.”
While most residents who spoke favored the wayside horns a proposal of moving the tracks, Elaine Kellerman, a vocal critic of wayside horns, said there are too many questions left unanswered. In a telephone interview following the meeting, Kellerman said her question during the meeting about from which budget the money would be allocated for the cost of wayside horns was never addressed. no answer.
An email to City Administrator Alexa Barton and Community Development Director Stephen Lachky asking about insurance costs, other alternatives to wayside horns and moving the tracks, how many track crossings would be switched to wayside horns and from which budget the money will be allocated to the project was not immediately answered by deadline.
Kellerman also said she wonders about how much the city’s insurance would increase and if the city is legally liable if there’s an accident on the tracks following the switch to wayside horns. She questions why the only two alternatives were wayside horns or moving the tracks.
Other questions include how many of the city’s four railroad tracks will be converted to wayside horns, since several aldermen mentioned, during the work session, other city tracks in addition to those located downtown.
Kellerman said she moved to Parkville, in part, because of the quaintness of the area, which includes traditional train horns. She said she’s disappointed in what she termed “a lack of transparency” on the issue.
“I’m not the only one (who prefers traditional horns),” she said. Kellerman claims that city officials and staff have, for many years, preferred the wayside horn alternative to appease some business owners and developers.
“This is a priority for the city,” she said. “It’s about them shoving it down our throats.”