Old Town to get no peace from train horns for at least 2 more months. Here’s why
Residents in Old Town Tacoma will have to wait a little longer for relief from the loud horns of trains passing through the intersection at McCarver Street and Ruston Way.
The horns, which residents told The News Tribune in April were disruptive enough to keep them up at night, are the result of a malfunctioning “wayside horn system,” which used to sound a much quieter horn to alert pedestrians and cyclists near the intersection of incoming trains. That the system is down, and city officials said train operators have to manually sound a much louder horn to announce their presence.
Tacoma’s interim public works director Kurtis Kingsolver told The News Tribune in April that a new wayside-horn system, which would cost about $50,000, would be in place in seven to nine weeks from the end of April — roughly the end of June. But according to a June 24 update from District 2 Tacoma City Council Member Sarah Rumbaugh, whose district includes the McCarver Street intersection, the new system won’t be in place until the end of August. The end of August is the city’s conservative estimate, the update reads.
The city received the new equipment on time by June 19. But BNSF Railway, the railroad that owns the line, informed the city soon after of a new process to authorize work near the tracks that has delayed installation. The new process requires the city to identify a third-party contractor to provide railroad flaggers — people who watch and protect crews from oncoming trains while working on or near railroad tracks. Doing so involves a seven to nine week wait time, according to the city’s update.
“We share the community’s frustration with the temporary return of the locomotive horns,” the update reads. “The Ruston Way waterfront is one of Tacoma’s most beautiful and heavily utilized areas, and restoring a quieter, noise-mitigated environment is a top priority for the City.”
“I want to acknowledge how this impacts residents’ quality of life as well as surrounding businesses,” Rumbaugh said in her email to residents of District 2. “I also want to express my appreciation for our Public Works staff’s efforts to mitigate the issue.”
