The Mississippi Department of Transportation is asking the city to close the railroad crossing at Klein and Pearl streets in order to improve safety.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted Thursday to hold a public hearing on the topic. The crossing is one of the three in the Garden District. City Clerk Walter Osborne said the time and date of the hearing will be set later.

City officials said while safety was cited, a closure will also benefit homeowners in that area who have complained about train horns that federal rules say must be sounded when a train approaches any crossing.

“We’re going to close that intersection and get rid of the worst of the three horns,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

The other crossings in that area are at Oak Street and at Speed Street. Several homes in the area are bed and breakfast inns and owners say the noise has become unbearable.

Discussions five years ago had centered on the creation of a railroad authority and moving through tracks outside the city limits, but that idea failed when Warren County supervisors would not back it.

Since, discussions between the city and Kansas City Southern Railway, the owner of the tracks through Vicksburg, have focused on closing as many crossings as possible.

However, eliminating the crossing also limits access to areas west of the railroad tracks, and concerns have been raised about emergency vehicles getting to the homes if any crossing is closed.

There have been no plans to close the Speed Street crossing.

In other matters the city board: