 |
Settlement a happy ending to city’s train lawsuit NOT
Author: ESW
Date: 10-09-2008 - 22:10
Settlement a happy ending to city’s train lawsuit NOT
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 2:36 PM PDT
NOVATO ADVANCE Opinion SECTION
At press time, it looked as if the city of Novato might be on the verge of settling its lawsuit with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the state agency that plans to resume freight traffic on tracks that run through Novato.
The settlement looks like a good deal for the city. The railroad authority is agreeing to pay $300,000 toward the cash-strapped city’s legal expense. It also has agreed to create “quiet zones,” or areas at all 13 railroad crossings in Novato so that the train engineer wouldn’t have to blow the train whistle. The railroad authority also is going to weld the tracks through town into one continuous seam, thereby eliminating the clackity-clack. The authority also will plant vegetation to shield homes from the locomotive’s light and give $100,000 to the city for noise abatements. And the freight train operator will buy the cleanest locomotives available.
All this, and all the city has to do is drop its lawsuit and refrain from future lawsuits.
It seems like the city got what it wanted, and we hope council agrees to seal the deal.
There is one potential fly in the ointment: The railroad authority is asking the city to agree that plans to reopen the railroad through the Eel River canyon are separate from plans to restore freight train service between Lombard in Napa County and Willits in Mendocino County.
That will sever the city’s ties with north coast environmental groups that rallied to the city’s side when council voted to sue the railroad authority.
But that alliance was a marriage of convenience; the city doesn’t have much in common with such groups, who also would like to curtail the tapping of the Eel River, a source of Novato’s water. We hope council embraces the settlement.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008 2:36 PM PDT
NOVATO ADVANCE Opinion SECTION
At press time, it looked as if the city of Novato might be on the verge of settling its lawsuit with the North Coast Railroad Authority, the state agency that plans to resume freight traffic on tracks that run through Novato.
The settlement looks like a good deal for the city. The railroad authority is agreeing to pay $300,000 toward the cash-strapped city’s legal expense. It also has agreed to create “quiet zones,” or areas at all 13 railroad crossings in Novato so that the train engineer wouldn’t have to blow the train whistle. The railroad authority also is going to weld the tracks through town into one continuous seam, thereby eliminating the clackity-clack. The authority also will plant vegetation to shield homes from the locomotive’s light and give $100,000 to the city for noise abatements. And the freight train operator will buy the cleanest locomotives available.
All this, and all the city has to do is drop its lawsuit and refrain from future lawsuits.
It seems like the city got what it wanted, and we hope council agrees to seal the deal.
There is one potential fly in the ointment: The railroad authority is asking the city to agree that plans to reopen the railroad through the Eel River canyon are separate from plans to restore freight train service between Lombard in Napa County and Willits in Mendocino County.
That will sever the city’s ties with north coast environmental groups that rallied to the city’s side when council voted to sue the railroad authority.
But that alliance was a marriage of convenience; the city doesn’t have much in common with such groups, who also would like to curtail the tapping of the Eel River, a source of Novato’s water. We hope council embraces the settlement.
