Train tracks intersect streets, student lives

IU senior Kenny Kendal loves the clatter the trains make when they roll past his 12th Street home.\n"It's a very peaceful sound," he said.\nChristina Fulton, the citizen services coordinator of Bloomington's Public Works Department, had a different experience. Fulton said when she lived beside the track in her former house on the east side of Bloomington, her dishes would sometimes rattle when trains rumbled past. However, Fulton got used to the sounds with time.\n"For the most part, people don't go after the railroad (with their complaints) because it's a part of American life," Fulton said.\nThese trains, owned by the Indiana Railroad Company, rumble through Bloomington every day transporting goods and materials, annoying some as others grow accustomed to the clamor. \nEigenmann Hall resident and senior Josh Goeringer said at first the trains were loud, but after three weeks of living at the residence hall, they do not bother him anymore. However, it's a different story for his friends.\n"(The trains) drive my friends crazy when they are over," Goeringer said.\nThe Indiana Railroad Company receives few complaints, said John Cummings, the Indiana Railroad manager for communications and signals. However, some people do complain.\nFulton said complaints she receives from Bloomington residents are usually about loud and disruptive trains or a railroad crossing that needs repair. A couple times people complained the engines left at the railroad by Ninth Street would be kept running until the next train arrived.\nSince railroads are the private property of railroad companies, they are exempt from local ordinances such as Bloomington's "Quiet Nights," which allows the police to arrest anyone creating disruptive noises after certain hours. \nBloomington residents who are annoyed by the passing trains can still call the Indiana Railroad Company and voice their complaints, though.\nThe Indianapolis-based company owns the trains and tracks that go through Bloomington. Trains running through Bloomington travel either to Indianapolis or Terre Haute and then to Illinois or Louisville, Ky. \nThese trains carry coal, cars and a large amount of various merchandise, Fulton said.\nThere is a section of track by Ninth Street where engines are disconnected from one train so they can be picked up by another going the opposite direction. Other than that, no trains stop in Bloomington to load or unload goods.\nTrains cross streets at three main locations within the IU campus. One is on the west side of the Fee Lane parking garage on North Walnut Grove Street, another is between the Student Recreational Sports Center and the 10th Street parking lot across from Teter Quad, and the last crosses between Campus View Apartments and Eigenmann. Cummings said Indiana Railroad has a contract with IU in these areas since railroads are private properties and said IU was not interested in putting signals at these crossings. The Campus View crossing does have warning lights, though.\nAs for future plans, the Indiana Railroad track will be around for quite a while, Cummings said. \n"We're carrying more business now than in history," Cummings said.