City of Washington holding railroad survey

WASHINGTON — Washington city officials have opened a survey for public weigh-in on proposed quiet zones and railroad infrastructure, as the community prepares for an expected merger between Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern railroads that would increase the county’s train traffic by over 14 per day.

Mayor Pro Tem Millie Youngquist said it was important to get more input after an informational meeting held on the subject last week.

“We really feel that more people in Washington should know about this issue, and we want to get feedback from more people,” she said. “We appreciate the people that attended, but we really want to make a more widespread, informational web … we don’t really feel we could totally make a decision without more feedback.”

The city council does not plan to discuss or vote on railroad agenda items until its first meeting in March, according to Youngquist. That gives the public until March 7 to take the survey, at the latest.

Still, the mayor pro tem encouraged people to take the survey sooner rather than later.

“If we could get their responses by the first of March or something like that, it would give us time to read the comments and kind of formulate some logical ways to proceed,” she said. “We’re trying to get the survey out to as many people as possible.”

The questionnaire is brief, and asks participants about their preference between a quiet zone, partial quiet zone and no quiet zone, as well as what railroad infrastructure they’d like to see installed, and what crossings they’d like to see closed if the city needs to improve its safety score to railroad regulators.

A link to the survey is available on the city website.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com