Citizens seeking quieter railroad find struggle

July 09, 2009

The North Valley in Albuquerque is getting a quiet zone.

Trains will no longer blow their horns at six railroad crossings on a three-mile stretch of train track between Osuna and Alameda roads. The track is used by the New Mexico Rail Runner Express.

Tell that to people in Belen who’ve been fighting for years to make Belen — the center of New Mexico railroading — quieter and they scoff.

Belen has more trains and more noise than the North Valley, with approximately 120 trains leaving and coming into the small city via four routes on any given day.

A lot of trains means a lot of horns. The problem is mostly muted by the bustle of daylight hours, but when the city’s streets quiet down at night and citizens lay down to sleep, the horns seem louder.

Albert Chavez, who lives on land adjacent to railroad tracks near East Aragon Road in Belen, and another citizen wrote a letter in April addressed to Rep. Elias Barela. In it, the two push for more information about whether or not Belen will get its quiet zone, explaining the problem:

Overall, we have been very pleased with the general improvements in noise control thus far, but we do not want to lose our momentum. The Rail Runner is still mandated to sound its horn at the Valentin Road crossing as it leaves and enters the Belen station. The freight trains on the same track (this north-south line) also need to signal for that intersection. For the community here on Tafoya, Aragon, Miller, Molina, Valentin, Chavez and Gabaldon roads, these horn signals are still painfully loud and aggressively active.

In October, the county, Rep. Elias Barela and Wilson & Company, an engineering firm, began to develop plans for a quiet zone at Valentin and Molina roads, where the Rail Runner commuter train passes through, and on Don Felipe, Lopez and Mesa roads, where Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains pass. Officials at the New Mexico Department of Transportation (DOT) and the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG), who are key to securing funding, have been discussing a Belen quiet zone, too, prodded by citizens and Barela to do something.

Despite ongoing discussions among officials, citizens vent their frustrations with the process in their conversations with one another, through emails and in person. In one email, a local asks supporters to make phone calls to the county and Wilson & Company to let them “know that the proposed quiet zone remains a very important issue.”

“Elias really is the only one who has done anything,” Chavez told Valencia!

Barela, who has been sometimes the lone outspoken advocate of a quieter railroad among public officials, found himself in trouble with Belen city councilors when, during the recent legislative session, he quietly moved $160,000 from city water projects to the Belen quiet zone project. While councilors were upset, quiet zone advocates were thankful.

“We have money,” Barela said. “We’re just trying to find enough money.”

The county has more than a couple hundred thousand dollars for the project, but that’s not enough and Barela has been unable to secure more funds. In a meeting on June 26 between Barela and state officials, he was unable to get any firm commitments of additional money for the project. He said he continues to believe DOT will find more money.

Valencia County Manager Eric Zamora has said the design for the quiet zone is complete but funding remains uncertain.

The estimated cost for quieting the five crossing is a hard figure to track down. Each crossing is unique, getting anything from a raised concrete median so cars can’t cross into the opposite lane and meander around crossing guard arms to the implementation of four crossing guard arms instead of the standard two.

Wilson & Company employees don’t answer their phones to provide the estimate and explain the proposed solutions to the problem, and the county, which promised a public meeting on the issue in May, still hasn’t held that meeting.

One of the least costly but possibly unpopular solutions, Barela said, is closing one or more of the crossing to vehicular traffic, including the rail crossing at Don Felipe Road. The crossings at Ross Avenue and Barboa Road, for instance, have already been closed with concrete barriers and signs.

The citizens who want a quiet zone continue to push but are getting very little movement from government officials. With stimulus money flushing through the state and MRCOG helping the North Valley get quiet crossings, these citizens continue to wonder when Belen will get its quiet zone.

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