Comments on: Decatur Drops Idea of Installing Railroad “Quiet Zones”

By: Parker Cross

Parker Cross — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 20:05:09 +0000

I dream of an Atlanta to Miami route.

By: Diane

Diane — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:26:56 +0000

But the railroads “own” the tracks and have more of a say in determining the crossing issues than streets.

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:22:31 +0000

What I find troubling is a false industrial nostalgia that prevents improvements because “things have always been that way”. It’s true that trains were here before any of the current residents; and before the trains came, native Americans lived here, so should we just all pack up and move away to return the land to them?
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Some of my Native American friends would say, hell, yeah!
IMO what we shouldn’t do is spend several million dollars trying to make things quiet for a few people who bought houses near the train tracks and now wish they hadn’t. It’s not false industrial nostalgia preventing these improvements–it’s sound economic reasoning combined with an emphasis on safety.

By: cranky old timer

cranky old timer — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 13:42:34 +0000

CSX -1 million points
Decatur: 0.1 (Agnes Scott underpass the exception)

This is not a passenger train. This is moving goods and services across the country train. This is a we’re not going to budge one inch for you peons sitting in the middle of the tracks train ….I personally love the sound of a train in the morning … or in the wee hours of the night …but sometimes I wonder if the conductors are a wee bit sadistic blowing on the horn so darn early….that said, people have been living next to tracks for over a century ….And got used to it. One thing I wish we could get is a bridge across the tracks for the Renfroe kids. But CSX bosses Decatur around all the time so I doubt that will ever happen.

By: dantesvalley

dantesvalley — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:50:02 +0000

Being against the train noise is not being against trains! I think trains are the way to go when it comes to future transportation. We should have more trains, and we should have much more aggressive government programs to expand railroad infrastructure for freight AND for passenger use. Wouldn’t it be great to hop on the train in Decatur and get off in Savannah an hour and a half later, or in Charlotte three hours later, or in DC eight hours later? What I find troubling is a false industrial nostalgia that prevents improvements because “things have always been that way”. It’s true that trains were here before any of the current residents; and before the trains came, native Americans lived here, so should we just all pack up and move away to return the land to them?