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Show Seeks hearing on siren noise r West Bountiful fights 2nd railroad line By PAUL CHALLIS News Editor WEST BOUNTIFUL The City Council voted Tuesday to protect pro-tect the public safety of its citizens in West Bountiful by fighting the reopening of Southern Pacific's Ogden railroad line. The council will also consider ways of making the railroad crossing cross-ing within its city boundaries safer and having a public hearing on siren noise and address wire fencing safety safe-ty problems in residential neighborhoods. James Behunin, chairman of the Transportation Committee of the West Bountiful Planning and Zoning Zon-ing Commission, asked the council for its support in four areas of concern. con-cern. "I propose that the council consider con-sider taking the following action: Encourage the railroad companies (Union Pacific and Southern Pacific) Paci-fic) to cooperate, seek tougher penalties for delays at crossings, regulate the use of sirens and call for a review of the railroad statute by the state legislature,' Behunin said. Behunin told the council that since 1984 the Ogden line of the Southern Pacific (formerly Denver Rio Grand) has not been in use. During 1984 the flooding of the Great Salt Lake inhibited traffic flow on that line. An agreement was made between the then Denver Rio Grand and Union Pacific to allow Union Pacific to operate on its line through the Jordan Narrows and Union Pacific would allow Denver Rio Grand to operate on its Ogden line through Davis County. In July 1990, Southern Pacific announced plans to reopen its Ogden line. The reason given by Southern Pacific Superintendent Mike Davis was that the Denver Rio Grand had merged with Southern Pacific and the increased business requires the reopening of the Ogden line, and " We've had some pretty serious delays on those (UP) tracks. Behunin says he wrote a letter to Union Pacific's General Solicitor Steven A. Good sell and asked him whether there were, in fact, delays on the Union Pacific line and whether this was the reason Southern Pacific needed to reopen its Ogden line. "Union Pacific is not experiencing experienc-ing significant delays as a general rule in operating between Salt Lake and Ogden; however, since mid-spring mid-spring of this year our company has been operating system project gangs on both tracks between Ogden and Salt Lake City, which work will continue until Dec. 1 . On most days one of the track segments has been out of service which has contributed to some train delays as the segment is normally out of service ser-vice for eight to 12 hours a day," Goodsell' s letter responded. Behunin also received information informa-tion from three Southern Pacific employees. "They tell me that Union Pacific dispatchers have been putting Southern Pacific trains on side tracks for hours at a time for no reason. The reason is not clear. Some have suggested that it is for competitive reasons; others have said it is out of hatred for Southern Pacific management." He said he would like to council to encourage Union Pacific and Southern Pacific to resolve their differences and work together to make the most efficient use possible of the Union Pacific line before reopening the Ogden line. "The major problem facing this railroad corridor is the bottleneck at the Salt Lake Railroad station. Because of this bottleneck, trains have backed up into Davis County. North Salt Lake has had a problem dealing with trains that are stopped because they can't get into the railroad station and block road crossings," he said. "West Bountiful has also had trains stop or move very slowly across our intersections. The crossing cross-ing gates frequently drop without a train ever coming. At the crossing of Pages Lane and the Union Pacific Paci-fic line, I have seen the gates go down and stay down for several minutes and the cars back up. After a while, when no train comes, the cars drive through the gates." He suggested to the council that it adopt the same solution to the problem that North Salt Lake has taken. SEE SIRENS ON A-3 train sirens. We can eliminate them altogether if we want, though I would not recommend that I propose pro-pose that a public hearing be held regarding the matter (sirens)," Behunin said. He added that the state statute on railroad companies has stood unrevised since 1953 and does not address problems which relate to railroads passing through populated areas. It addresses injury to livestock and has strict rules for barbed wire fencing along the railroad lines, but nothing more is required. "I propose that you (the council) ask the legislature to consider requiring re-quiring railroads to install the same chain-link fencing along railroad lines through metropolitan areas that UDOT is required to install," he said. "As it is now, Southern Pacific is planning on putting barbed wire fencing along the sections sec-tions which border our residential areas. " - Sirens CONTINUED FROM A-l "I propose we fine the railroad for unnecessary delays. I propose however, that we not only fine the stopped trains but also fine the railroad whenever the gates drop and stay down unnecessarily," he added. Behunin claims that if Southern Pacific opens the Ogden line that the number of railroad crossings will go from two to six. "We should also consider adopting adop-ting tougher regulations regarding The use of the sirens. The trains occasionally oc-casionally sound their sirens continuously con-tinuously as they pass through West Bountiful and this has been an annoyance an-noyance to residents especially at night," he said. "The state code allows local jurisdictions to regulate the use of |