Feds Agree to Re-Evaluate Train Horn Laws [VIDEO]

Trains rolling through town are loud.  Really loud.  They can ruin an otherwise lovely day downtown with the family.  I've learned to dread the "ding-ding-ding" of railroad crossings; because I know the long, deafening train horn is not far behind.  So I'm pretty stoked that the government has finally agreed to reconsider the laws surrounding train horns.

Current regulations, which went into effect in 2005, require train engineers to sound their hours for at least 15 seconds when entering a road crossing. The rules give communities the power to create “quiet zones” by rebuilding intersections to make them safer, but those intersection improvements can cost millions of dollars in places like Fort Collins, where the BNSF Railway tracks run down the middle of Mason Street.

[via The Coloradoan.]

Colorado senators have been lobbying for changes to the train horn laws for some time, and now the Federal Government has finally agreed to reconsider the laws and how they are implemented.

Because the City of Fort Collins doesn't want to pay millions of dollars for "quiet zone" intersections, it is seeking an outright waiver of the deafening horn laws, which many people (including myself) claim disrupt city residents.  The city feels it deserves the waiver, due to the unique nature of the Mason corridor, according to the Coloradoan.

I know the horn laws are there for safety's sake; but there has to be a happy medium, right?  Can't we keep people safe and keep them from going deaf at the same time?