Pearl Street resident Bobby Johnson talks about a proposal to close two vehicular crossings over railroad tracks near his home.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[11/16/03]Residents along Pearl Street in an area where the blasts from train whistles have been cited as a growing problem differ about a possible plan to close two street crossings and silencing the horns.

City officials met Friday with representatives of the Mississippi Department of Transportation and Kansas City Southern Railways to look at possible improvements in the Garden District between Speed and Klein streets. As the number of trains through the city grows each year, KCS, which owns the tracks, wants to close three street crossings to improve safety.

Two are at Speed and Klein streets, but people living in homes west of the tracks say closing the crossings would cut off their main routes in and out of the area.

“That don’t make no sense,” said Denise Love, a Pearl Street resident for five years.

“You got people living down here,” she said.

Plans proposed by MDOT and KCS are part of a state program to improve safety along the railroad corridor between Meridian and Vicksburg. In addition to improving safety, closing the crossings at Speed and Klein would mean trains would not have to blast the horns that have brought complaints from bed and breakfast inn owners just east of the tracks.

While that would be a relief to the owners of some of Vicksburg’s most expensive properties, residents on the other side of the tracks say the horns really aren’t much of a concern.

“It’s just a thing that your ears get used to,” said Bobby Johnson, 2414 Pearl St.

Johnson, who has lived there for 10 years, said the trains don’t bother him much, but he does believe the crossings are dangerous. He said they should be closed, but it would create a problem for people who live there and need a way to work.

City officials working with KCS say the solution is less than a mile south at Fairground Street. There, a railroad overpass could provide a way across the tracks without requiring trains to blow their horns.

That access has been closed since 1995 when a city inspection found the 108-year-old bridge on the west side of the tracks to be unsafe. The city would have to rebuild a portion of Pearl Street on the west side of the tracks between Klein and Fairground streets to provide that access, and the railroad overpass would have to be rebuilt so emergency vehicles, including fire trucks, could get under it.

That’s where the department of transportation comes in, said Steven Edwards with MDOT.

“We’ve come here with dollars to help,” Edwards said.

Under the railroad safety proposal with MDOT, the state would fund 70 percent of the improvements and KCS would pay for the remaining 30 percent. The city would still have to fund the road improvements.

Today, 22 trains pass through Vicksburg daily, up from 16 just two years ago. Edwards said the goal is to cut the number of railroad street crossings to reduce the chances of an accident.

Railroad tracks cross five Vicksburg streets, including Speed and Klein. The others are at Oak, Court and Lee streets.

KCS representative Allen Pepper said the railroad company wants to close three crossings to justify spending money on other improvements, such as rebuilding the railroad overpass at Fairground. He said the railroad wants to see either Oak or Lee street closed, but city officials say they can’t do either.

The cost of rebuilding the Fairground Street overpass was estimated between $350,000 and $1 million.

“I don’t know if we’ve made any progress or not, but we’ve communicated well,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens of the meeting Friday.

Leyens said the railroad should also look at ways to keep children off the tracks along Pearl Street. The area to the west is primarily residential, and children often play around or on the tracks.

People also walk across the tracks there to neighboring homes and stores. Johnson said he’s never seen anyone come close to being hit by the trains because residents there know to keep an eye out for them, but he said it can be dangerous.

“I feel the neighborhood feels they’re between a crack the way it is now,” he said.