Fort Collins is one of those old railroad towns where they still have street-running trains. This never used to be a problem, until the FRA horn-rule went into effect — and the horns became louder and more frequent. Because the track runs through the middle of town, any Quiet-Zone implementation would be costly and disruptive. A number of cross-streets would have to be closed, to the detriment of nearby businesses. So the city is going to attempt a waiver:
The city for years has been studying whether it could and should create a “quiet zone” along the Mason Corridor by making a series of intersection changes, including much larger crossing gates. But installing those safety measures would cost about $5 million and make it much harder to get around Old Town.
Now, the city is trying something different.
Instead of closing off some intersections and significantly rebuilding others, the city has decided to ask federal officials for a waiver from the horn rule. The city plans to tell federal officials it will make some smaller intersection changes and offer up other safety solutions. City officials believe they can make the case that because Mason is so unusual, Fort Collins deserves special dispensation. City, railroad and federal officials say Fort Collins is unique because the BNSF Railway tracks run down the center of a city street.
We will see what happens, but the FRA has been rigid in its application of the rule. Even in cases like Fort Collins where the trains travel at very slow speeds.
Fort Collins on Mason St. definitely has an unusual situation. It was only this year that the railroad was actually given its own lane with curbs — before that it was actual street running, streetcar style.
There isn’t actually a sane way to deal with that railroad routing short of pedestrianizing the street which it runs down the middle of.
Which you could do, pretty easily, actually. The blocks are short enough — and sufficiently empty (lots of parking lots) — that almost everyone has driveway access on the east-west streets, and it would be easy enough to provide it for the few who don’t. The college means that there is sufficient walking-and-biking traffic to keep such a pedestrianized area lively.
But for some reason Fort Collins chose to prioritize giving motor vehicles a slightly shorter (1 block shorter, on average) route over having a quiet zone. The worship of the car continues.
If Fort Collins had gotten its act together, this corridor would also have an actual train station and platform — this is the route of the long-proposed Front Range commuter rail. But of course instead Fort Collins is trumpeting something with a bunch of diesel buses.
(To make it clear what’s going on, all the cross streets can be kept open *if you close Mason Street to cars instead*. What makes gates problematic — there are no gates currently, none, zero — is the road running *parallel* to the rails.)
Oh — hah, it gets worse. The city is putting in a supposed BRT system along Mason St. which means that the city doesn’t want to remove the parallel roadway. Had the city put in a light rail line instead, it would be much easier to comply with the quiet zone rules. :-P