By Steve Landwehr
Staff writer
February 05, 2008 06:51 am IPSWICH — For at least 32 years, train whistles have only been sounded at one crossing in Ipswich, and in only one direction, at that. Town officials have been hoping, at the very least, to maintain that pattern. They found out last night things are instead about to get noisier. Randy Dickinson, program manager for rail crossings in the Federal Railroad Administration's local office, went to last night's selectmen's meeting to attempt to clarify what has become a very complicated problem. The story actually begins in 1975, when MBTA records show that train whistles were not sounded in Ipswich in either direction at Linebrook Road or Liberty, Mineral and Washington streets. Trains coming from Newburyport also didn't blow whistles at Topsfield Road, but trains headed to Newburyport had no such injunction. No one has been around long enough to know why the distinction was made, but what it means now is that whistles will soon be sounded at the crossing from both directions. "It appears that one fell through the cracks," Dickinson said of the crossing. Because of the whistle pattern, the crossing should not have been included in the quiet zone designation the town was given in 2005, Dickinson said. The MBTA will soon be getting the order to blow train whistles when approaching the crossing from either direction. The town's other four crossings can keep their status, but it's unclear how much difference that will make, since engineers have to sound the horn for 15 to 20 seconds before pulling into stations. Dickinson offered a measure of comfort. Engineers only need two long blasts, a short one and another long one, and repeat the pattern until the train gets into the station. "It doesn't have to be this laying on (the whistle)," Dickinson said. That was little comfort to Colonial Drive resident Bob Donellan, who implored the selectmen to try to find a way to keep Topsfield Road a quiet zone. "If (whistles) blow at Topsfield Road, it will affect the entire downtown," Donellen said. The whistle ban controversy began in the mid-1990s, when Congress ordered the Federal Railroad Administration to develop national regulations governing the sounding of train whistles. Until then, each state set its own rules. In June 2005, the FRA instituted a policy requiring horns to be sounded at every intersection not equipped with adequate safety measures to prevent automobiles from getting on the tracks in the path of oncoming locomotives. However, exceptions were made for cities and towns with "heritage bans," ones that had been in place in some cases as long as 100 years, and sometimes only by unwritten agreement. As long as crossings were outfitted with gates, warning lights, signs and bells, the FRA allowed them to continue as "quiet zones." But they needed to have some proof whistles hadn't been sounded historically, and that's where the MBTA crossing on Topsfield Road came up short. Attaining quiet zone status for Topsfield Road won't happen until at least 2009, and probably won't be cheap. Towns that wanted to maintain their quiet status had to be able to prove all their crossings, on average, were at least safe as the national average. Ipswich was the only town on the North Shore that fell short: Two train-versus-car accidents had occurred at the Topsfield Road crossing within the previous five years. That means the town must now develop plans to physically improve safety at that crossing. Other communities around the country that have installed the kind of improvements Ipswich needs have spent from $300,000 to $500,000 per crossing.
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