Update on CP Rail Noise

On July 12, Ellen Biales, of City Council Member Kathy Lantry's office, met with CP Rail officials to discuss the results of their months-long investigation of our neighborhood's noise complaints. Here is Ellen's summary of that meeting:

Herb Jones (CP Rail official) indicated that he has conducted a thorough investigation of operations at the CP Rail Hump yard.  Many of the items that they investigated were based on suggestions made by neighbors who were interviewed as a part of the investigation.  Here is brief list of some of the items they reviewed:

Hump elevation:  The hump elevation has not changed since 1954 when the hump was installed.  According to CP, the hump has remained the same with the same profile since that time.  It has been suggested that the slope of the hump had somehow been changed when CP did some construction work in the hump yard a few years ago.  The work that took place in the yard was the re-building of a pedestrian bridge.  This work took place approximately 7 years ago.  There was no construction on the hump at that time.

Break Shoes: according to their operations manager, they have been using the same manufacturer for their break shoes since the 1990’s.  There has been no change in where the break shoes have been manufactured or the standards that the break shoes operate under.  Their operations people have not found any discernable difference in the way the break shoes have operated over time.  Mr. Jones indicated that CP is spending approximately $400,000 a year more than they would typically spend on shoes at this location to provide a higher quality break shoe.

Increased Activity:  It has been proposed that perhaps there has been more activity coming through the yard and therefore more noise associated with it.  Reviewing the traffic volumes from 2008 – 2010, CP has actually had reduced traffic coming through the hump yard.  There was a reduction of 12-15% over the two year period.  Mr. Jones did indicate that traffic volume is not the same at all times and there may be periods where the volume is higher than at others.  This could lead to the perception of more noise.  However, their overall volume is down.

Operator Differences:  It had been suggested that different operators may have an effect on the way cars are released as they go down the hump.  According to Mr. Jones, all of these functions are mechanized and essentially, all an operator would do is push a button to release the cars.  There are no other manual operations that would account for a difference in noise levels.

Mr. Jones did indicate that they had interviewed employees of the hump yard for possible differences.  The employees have not noticed a discernable difference in noise.  There have also been no complaints from employees regarding excessive noise or changes in conditions at the hump yard.  Mr. Jones indicated that the union and employees are typically vocal in reporting any conditions that they find unusual or concerning.  Mr. Jones did indicate that ear protection is required for all employees.

Based on their review, CP can find nothing in their operations that would seem to account for an increase in noise over the past several years.  They do believe that there could be other changes in the area and/or environmental conditions that could lead to a difference in the noise perception.  One possibility they suggested was changes related to HWY 61 re-construction—although the reconstruction was not in the immediate area.

One neighbor had indicated that noise over the July 4^th weekend was worse than it has been in a while.  When CP reviewed what had occurred that weekend, they discovered that the volume of traffic was down about 25% from the previous weekend.  They are taking a look at what the weather conditions, wind direction and humidity were for that weekend—how that might have an effect.

Mr. Jones indicated that CP Rail is within the noise parameters established by the Federal Railroad Administration and their priority for noise mitigation efforts are going to be in locations where they are not in compliance.  He indicated that CP Rail is already spending additional money at this location for noise reduction (such as the higher quality break shoes).

They are willing to continue working with the neighborhood to determine why the perception of the noise has changed, but they can not find any part of their current operation that would seem to indicate an increase or change in the noise that they are emitting.  Again, they believe that the perception of the noise may be conditional (i.e. weather conditions) or related to some change in the surrounding environment.  They are willing to entertain suggestions about other things to examine and they are willing to continue to review data at times when neighbors are perceiving the noise to be worse.

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In addition, CP Rail officials met with some of the immediate neighbors and we are working on how we can observe the operations to understand better how things work. We want to be clear that there is not a change in the perception of noise, but there is an actual noise problem. Environmental conditions can affect generating the noise just as easily as (or moreso) changing the perception of noise.

As we move along in this process, we will keep you informed...