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Railroad would pay city’s legal expenses, install quiet zones
Author: DAVE
Date: 10-09-2008 - 22:04
MITSY esq
the loco news paper tells a diferent storie
CITY MAY SETTLE SUIT AGAINST FREIGHT TRAIN
Railroad would pay city’s legal expenses, install quiet zones
Staff Report NOVATO ADVANCE
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 2:36 PM PDT
The city of Novato may get reimbursed for the bulk of its legal expenses and see “quiet zones” installed at all railroad crossings in the city under a proposed settlement agreement in its lawsuit with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the state agency that wants to resume freight train service on tracks that run through Novato.
Council was slated to consider the settlement in closed session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, and then hear public comment at 7:30 p.m. at a special meeting to be held at the Novato Unified School District office at 1015 Seventh St.
The railroad authority’s board already approved the proposed settlement, in concept, at its Oct. 1 meeting by six votes in favor and two abstentions, said the authority’s executive director Mitch Stogner,
“I think we’ve entered into this in the spirit of cooperation and are attempting to address the concerns in a responsible way,” Stogner told the Advance.
Under the conditions of the settlement, the railroad authority and the Northwest Pacific Railroad, the freight train company that would use the track, agreed to a number of things, including:
• Welding the entire track that runs through Novato into one, continuous seam to reduce train noise.
• Improving signage and railroad crossing gates, where warranted, to make it less likely that vehicles will cross the tracks when trains are coming to create “quiet zones,” or areas where the engineer won’t have to blow the train whistle.
• Paying up to $300,000 toward the city’s legal expenses in the case.
• Paying the city up to $100,000 for sound attenuation purposes.
• Building fencing along the railroad right-of-way.
• Installing landscaping to shield residences and businesses from the lights of passing engines.
• Committing to the purchase of ultra-low-emitting locomotives for freight train engines.
In return, the city would agree to such things as dismissing its lawsuit against the railroad authority and agreeing that the railroad is only planning to restore the southernmost part of the tracks — not the Eel River section.
the loco news paper tells a diferent storie
CITY MAY SETTLE SUIT AGAINST FREIGHT TRAIN
Railroad would pay city’s legal expenses, install quiet zones
Staff Report NOVATO ADVANCE
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 2:36 PM PDT
The city of Novato may get reimbursed for the bulk of its legal expenses and see “quiet zones” installed at all railroad crossings in the city under a proposed settlement agreement in its lawsuit with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the state agency that wants to resume freight train service on tracks that run through Novato.
Council was slated to consider the settlement in closed session at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, and then hear public comment at 7:30 p.m. at a special meeting to be held at the Novato Unified School District office at 1015 Seventh St.
The railroad authority’s board already approved the proposed settlement, in concept, at its Oct. 1 meeting by six votes in favor and two abstentions, said the authority’s executive director Mitch Stogner,
“I think we’ve entered into this in the spirit of cooperation and are attempting to address the concerns in a responsible way,” Stogner told the Advance.
Under the conditions of the settlement, the railroad authority and the Northwest Pacific Railroad, the freight train company that would use the track, agreed to a number of things, including:
• Welding the entire track that runs through Novato into one, continuous seam to reduce train noise.
• Improving signage and railroad crossing gates, where warranted, to make it less likely that vehicles will cross the tracks when trains are coming to create “quiet zones,” or areas where the engineer won’t have to blow the train whistle.
• Paying up to $300,000 toward the city’s legal expenses in the case.
• Paying the city up to $100,000 for sound attenuation purposes.
• Building fencing along the railroad right-of-way.
• Installing landscaping to shield residences and businesses from the lights of passing engines.
• Committing to the purchase of ultra-low-emitting locomotives for freight train engines.
In return, the city would agree to such things as dismissing its lawsuit against the railroad authority and agreeing that the railroad is only planning to restore the southernmost part of the tracks — not the Eel River section.
