BISMARCK -- The state Senate has passed a bill that will give cities state grants for building special railroad crossings that will allow trains to pass through without sounding loud air horns.
Senate Bill 2338 passed on a 32-15 vote Monday.
The bill has drawn support from several cities, including Jamestown, Medora and Bismarck, and its primary sponsor is Sen. David Nething, R-Jamestown.
He said before the vote -- and other people have also testified earlier -- that federal rules in recent years mandate train horns to be louder and longer. Two locomotive engineers also testified in favor of the bill, with one saying he likes blowing the horns even less than city residents like hearing them.
Nething called the program "a real good expenditure" in cities where commercial and residential activities have been harmed by the increasing number and loudness of train horns.
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Up to $6 million from state highway construction funds will be available in the program, and cities would be able to get up to $100,000 per crossing for up to five crossings per city or up to 23 crossings in the state.
The special crossings are built to ensure that vehicles can't go around the crossing arms and into the path of the train, and also create special barriers that pedestrians also can't get through. When those are built, the trains are allowed to go through crossings without sounding their horns.
Fargo and Moorhead installed several of the crossings about a year ago and Bismarck locomotive engineer John Risch testified to Senate committees that there have been no deaths at crossings in Fargo and Moorhead since then.
The money will come from fuel taxes that the railroads pay when they buy diesel for their trains. Nething noted that railroads pay fuel taxes that are used to keep roads that benefit the railroads' competitors.
Sen. Arden Anderson, D-Wahpeton, and Sen. Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, noted that putting $6 million in road funds into this program will be that much less money for cities and counties to use on their streets and roads.
"Everybody's going to get nipped a little bit," Wardner said.
The bill now goes to the House.
