The city of Neosho, BNSF Railroad and KCS Railroad have partnered to establish a "quiet zone" in Neosho. What this means to the residents is that the trains will not be required to blow their horns while going through town. To make this possible, safety improvements to all crossings and the closing of others will have to be accomplished. Work begun on the BNSF line should be completed by November 1, 2009. Improvements to the KCS line should begin in April 2010 and take two months to complete.

This project will make a great improvement to the safety and the noise level in our town, according to comments made by Mike Hightower, public works director.

The safety improvements will include: new signals with cross arms at every crossing, center mediums (sic), new signage, road widening, and changes in intersections next to rail crossings.

The railroads will be responsible for the signal work. Neosho's responsibility includes the center mediums and road widening with compensation for their portion of the project provided from funds from MoDOT and the railroads.

When asked if Joplin might consider a similar move, City Manager Mark Rohr said, "We have done some research into the matter and Public Works is developing a file for possible implementation."

What that might mean is that if enough Joplin residents complain about the noise, the city might pursue the matter.

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