Train Whistle Moratorium Is Extended

Railroad officials said Thursday that they have extended a moratorium on nighttime train whistles in Placentia until a hearing next week on whether the city can ban them.

“We see this as a strong first step,” Mayor Chris Lowe said of the action Thursday by Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. “It’s a step in a journey that will ultimately conclude with the railroad recognizing all the safety measures we have installed and going back to its 25-year practice of not blowing their whistles at every intersection.”

In a letter to City Atty Thomas F. Nixon, railroad lawyer W. Douglas Werner said the company was extending the moratorium because it “desires to continue working with the City of Placentia to resolve this issue as expeditiously as possible, and in a way that addresses not only the convenience for the residents but also the safety of the community at large.”

The issue has been debated for several weeks, ever since the railroad announced that it would end its long-standing practice of allowing engineers to refrain from blowing their whistles at intersections in the absence of a perceived safety risk. The city filed a lawsuit challenging the company’s right to resume its whistle-blowing. A hearing on the matter is set for Thursday in Orange County Superior Court.

The railroad’s extension of its voluntary moratorium came on the same day that about 200 residents attended a City Council meeting to hear an update on efforts to ban the whistles. Lowe said, the city is planning additional safety measures such as special gates at intersections in an effort to persuade the railroad to change its mind.

The gates, Lowe said, will “make it virtually impossible for individuals to jump out and get through the track.”