Edina seeks federal funds for railroad crossing safety study
The Edina City Council is pursuing $200,000 in federal funding to study safety improvements at seven railroad crossings operated by CPKC Railroad. The move comes as increased nighttime train operations have raised concerns about noise and safety in the community.
The city is developing a Railroad Crossing Safety Action Plan to address the seven at-grade crossings — places where roads cross railroad tracks at the same level — that run through Edina on the CPKC Railroad line. The study, estimated to cost $250,000, would evaluate whether any crossings can be eliminated entirely, whether grade separation improvements are feasible, or what safety measures should be implemented. The city has requested $200,000 in federal funding to help cover the cost, with a decision expected by March 2025.
If crossings cannot be eliminated, the study would examine specific safety mitigation options including pavement markings to show where cars should stop, flashing lights, crossing signage, and overhead arms that stop traffic when trains approach. These improvements are designed to reduce accidents and injuries at the crossings.
The council also discussed growing noise complaints from train horns, which federal regulations require to sound 15 seconds before trains enter public crossings. While the city explored establishing "quiet zones" to eliminate horn requirements, council members learned that the Federal Railroad Administration must approve any quiet zone designation — a process that takes multiple years. Importantly, the city would first need to implement safety mitigation measures at each crossing before the federal agency would even consider approving a quiet zone.
As one council member explained, the approach is hierarchical: "we have to first study if we can eliminate any of the crossings and if we can't then what can we do to mitigate the risks." This means residents should not expect immediate relief from train horn noise, but the safety study represents a first step toward longer-term solutions for both safety and noise concerns.
This story was created by artificial intelligence (a large language model) based on the proceedings captured in the video below.
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Other Topics from This Document
Train Horn Noise and Quiet Zone Establishment
Also from this meeting
▸Meeting Analysis
“we have to first study if we can eliminate any of the crossings and if we can't then what can we do to mitigate the risks”
“to mitigate the risks are pavement markings to show where cars are supposed to stop before they cross the tracks we can do flashing lights we can do Crossing signage or just overhead arms that stop traffic when a train comes through”
“if the city wants to establish a quiet Zone that has to be approved by the Federal Railroad Administration they have to look at the RIS the mitigation risk tactics that we want to do at each Crossing we would have to implement those mitigation risk improvements and then we would be able to implement that quiet Zone with them and through them that process is a multi-year Endeavor”
▸Source Document
[Music] the city is seeking Federal funding for a study to improve atg grade railroad crossings in Edina a rail line owned by cpkc railroad runs through the city and while many Crossings are grade separated with streets going over or under the tracks seven still remain at street level with varying levels of safety measures to address this issue the city would like to complete a railroad crossing Safety Action Plan to see what can be done to improve the situation at each of the seven at grade Crossings until recently most trains passing through Edina operated during the daytime now the railroad has begun operating these trains at night which might be disturbing residents since the train horn rule requires Engineers to sound train horns at least 15 seconds before entering public grade Crossings eliminating Crossings or making grade separation improvements would remove the need for trains to sound their horns at Crossings where that cannot be done other safety improvements could be evaluated to make the crossing safer we have to first study if we can eliminate any of the crossings and if we can't then what can we do to mitigate the risks to mitigate the risks are pavement markings to show where cars are supposed to stop before they cross the tracks we can do flashing lights we can do Crossing signage or just overhead arms that stop traffic when a train comes through so those are really the first steps uh if we want to consider a quiet Zone on our seven Crossings within town the city has requested Federal funding of $200,000 for creation of the railroad crossing Safety Action Plan which is estimated to cost $250,000 some have asked if the city can establish quiet zones in the meantime the city does not have that Authority and the process to establish one can take years so if the city wants to establish a quiet Zone that has to be approved by the Federal Railroad Administration they have to look at the RIS the mitigation risk tactics that we want to do at each Crossing we would have to implement those mitigation risk uh improvements and then we would be able to implement that quiet Zone with them and through them that process is a multi-year Endeavor to get to a officially approved quiet Zone the city does not expect to hear back from the Federal Railroad Administration about the funding request until March 2025 if the grant is not awarded there will be no funding available for the study in 2025
This story was created by artificial intelligence (a large language model) based on the proceedings captured in the video below.
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