City Explores Legal Action to Stop Late-Night Trains in West Valley

The Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 0 Tuesday to ask its lawyers to review the possibility of suing Southern Pacific to stop the railroad from running freight trains at night on a branch line in the west San Fernando Valley.

The action was requested by Councilwoman Joy Picus, whose constituents have been complaining loudly since late June about late-night, whistle-blowing freight trains disturbing their sleep.

Picus said she was hopeful the dispute can be settled without litigation.

She said a top executive of the railroad assured her Friday afternoon that the late runs would be ended and noted that her office had received no complaints of train noise from constituents since Friday. “Maybe that’s a sign the message is getting through,” she said. Railroad executives could not be reached for comment.

The Picus motion asked the city attorney to review possible litigation to prevent freight train travel on the Burbank branch line between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The line branches off from the main line in Burbank. It runs west along Chandler Boulevard in North Hollywood and passes through the Sepulveda Basin and northern Encino and Tarzana to Woodland Hills, swinging north to rejoin the main line at Chatsworth.

The noise problem arose recently because work on the Metrolink commuter line has forced a change in freight train schedules, company officials have said.

Trains coming up the main line from Van Nuys to make local deliveries cannot reach the Chatsworth junction until work on the main line ends, they said.

Picus said Tuesday she is concerned that noise problems may not be temporary. “It’s not clear to me that once Metrolink goes into operation that Southern Pacific won’t be doing the same thing” to avoid scheduling conflicts with that operation, she said.