Train Horns

Linn County Trails Association bike corral
at the Downtown Farmers Market

Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance

Everybody thinks it's true--PAUL SIMON

This summer I spent more time at the Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market than ever before, mostly volunteering at the Linn County Trails Association booth and bike check. Our station is located at one corner of the park at Greene Square, off 3rd Avenue by the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and the railroad tracks. And therein lies a tale.

At least once every Saturday morning, a freight train rolled through the market, just feet away from me. (Cedar Rapids has not had passenger rail service in over 60 years.) The train moves very slowly, sometimes stopping or reversing, always accompanied by much sounding of the horn. I can't quote decibel levels, but, wow! One blast would be painful, but this goes on for five and sometimes as long as ten minutes. Mothers with babes in arms cover their little ones' ears. I've seen people at the market literally writhing in agony.

I'm still hearing the train, even though I live nearly two miles from the park, because we've had our windows open at night of late during a weird autumn heat wave. Trains come through at all hours, but always blasting the horn. From my house it's a "train in the distance," but it still goes on for 5-10 minutes, and I know what that sounds like downtown. Even inside with windows closed middle of the nights noise that loud and long have to be felt.

A story update in the Cedar Rapids Gazette last weekend reported that efforts to create "railroad quiet zones" in Cedar Rapids, first announced in 2017, are still active despite numerous delays. Reporter Elijah Decious cited supply chain issues after the pandemic, as well as unnamed problems with railway owners Canadian National (north of 6th Avenue SE) and Union Pacific (south of 6th Avenue). The city is responsible for pavings, sidewalks, and street approaches including concrete medians (to prevent drivers dodging around the crossing arms); the railroads are responsible for the rest, and will proceed at their own pace. The City of Cedar Rapids will bear the entire cost, estimated at $14.4 million.

The stretch between Sixth Avenue and Cedar Lake--which includes Greene Square--is now predicted to be finished in the spring. Union Pacific's portion should be completed "between 2027 and 2029," after which work will begin on another line, owned by CRANDIC Railway Company and running through Kingston Village.

I was impressed by the length of this 2023 train as it crossed 3rd Avenue,
but not by the noise. What's changed?

This is an urgent matter, and I hope in the interim the train companies will look for alternatives to night after night of blast after blast. The neighborhoods through which the tracks run have been rebuilt after 2008, and even after all we've been through since then remain some of the most valuable property in the city. Still, people have been slow to return: population of the six census tracts in the center of town was 17,818 in 2022, barely more than in 2012 (just after the flood), and still about 15 percent down from 2000 (pre-flood). (More analysis of these data is in this 2024 post.)

It shouldn't be excruciating to live, visit, shop or work in the center of town. It is up to the city and the railroads to do what they can to make it pleasant and productive.