FREEPORT – Many Freeport residents came out in favor of quiet last week, especially when it comes to train whistles.

The Freeport Town Council held a public hearing Aug. 7 to get resident input about the establishment of “quiet zones,” which would block trains from blowing their whistles when approaching intersections in town. The eight crossings in question are at West, Bow, East and School streets, and Webster, Hunter, Upper Mast Landing and Fernald roads.

Only freight trains pass through Freeport now, and those are on an irregular schedule. When the Amtrack Downeaster begins service sometime in November, it is expected to make three round trips through Freeport on a daily basis. Both the freight and passenger trains would be subject to the quiet zones.

Residents told councilors that, while they wanted the crossings in town to be as safe as possible, they also wanted the council to act to stop the trains from blowing their horns as they come through town.

The Town Council took no action after the public hearing. Chairman James Cassida said that the council would likely hold more meetings on the issue before coming to any kind of decision.

“There’s quite a bit of information that needs to come back to the council before a decision can be made,” he said.

The Federal Railroad Administration instituted a rule in 2005 that required all trains to sound their whistles when approaching railroad crossings. But the agency also allowed for the establishment of quiet zones, where both freight and passenger trains would be prohibited from sounding their horns, provided the crossing had the proper safety measures installed to prevent collisions between cars and trains.

James LeBlanc, one of the owners of the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport, which sits just 15 feet from the tracks, told the council he is worried about having to satisfy guest complaints about the horns being sounded just feet from their rooms, adding that the busy hotel attracts thousands of guests per year to town.

“When over 50,000 guests per year lay their heads on their pillows, they are going to be real close to those whistles,” he said.

LeBlanc said it is Hilton’s policy to give refunds to unsatisfied guests, no matter what the reason, and he anticipates that refund policy, which his hotel follows, could hurt revenues at the hotel if many guests complain about noise from the trains.

“(The noise) will be impactful to (the hotel) running a viable business,” he said. “It’s a matter of cost. We hope we have quiet zones.”

Two options are under consideration for the quiet zones in town. One is a so-called “quad gate,” where the intersection has four gates blocking the crossing instead of two, which would prevent any traffic from getting on the tracks while the train passes. The cost would be about $100,000 per intersection, money the town would have to pay.

A second option, called “channelization,” would involve installing soft barriers in the middle of the road approaching the crossing, blocking traffic from going into the other lane in an attempt to skirt the barrier blocking the crossing. The cost for this option would be about $15,000 per intersection.

Lynda D’Amico of Chapel Street said she had lived in her house for more than 20 years, and she would like to see the town enact quiet zones.

“Safety is obviously the No. 1 thing,” she said. “But it looks like there are options to have quiet zones for the quality of life for residents around the railroad tracks.”

While the majority of the residents and business owners at the hearing spoke in favor of the quiet zones, the sentiment wasn’t unanimous.

Edward Bonney of Lower Main Street, who is also the chairman of the Freeport Train Station Committee, said he was against sacrificing safety for silence, adding that he believed the impact from the train whistles would be small.

“(The impact of the whistles) does not warrant compromising the safety that signals and whistles provide,” he said, adding that he was not speaking on behalf of the committee. “Safety has to be the No. 1 factor.”

Councilor Kristina Egan said she was not inclined to be in favor of quiet zones. She said that having the Downeaster come to town brought benefits and drawbacks, and that one of the drawbacks to the train was the noise. But even with all the preventive measures in place, a quiet zone was not as safe as one where a train sounds its horn to warn of its passage.

“A horn makes it less likely that someone is going to get hit,” she said.

The Hilton Garden Inn in downtown Freeport sits just feet away from the railroad tracks to be used by the Amtrak Downeaster. James LeBlanc, one of the hotel’s owners, told the Freeport Town Council that he was concerned about the impact the noise from train whistles would have on his guests.