FREEPORT – By a 5-1 vote on Jan. 8, the Freeport Town Council took the first steps toward silencing train horns in town.

Councilor Kristina Egan cast the lone dissenting vote (Councilor Kate Arno was absent from the meeting) as the board decided to begin the process of designating quiet zones at Freeport’s eight railroad crossings.

It will be several months before the trains coming through town will be silenced, however. First, Freeport has to allow the Federal Railroad Administration 60 days to express any concerns the agency might have about quiet zones at Freeport’s eight crossings. Following that comment period, the town has to file a notice with railroad operators of its intent to declare a quiet zone, and then 21 days after that notice is filed, the quiet zones will take effect.

Under Federal Railroad Administration regulations, all trains are required to sound their whistles when approaching railroad crossings. But those regulations also allow for the establishment of quiet zones, where the trains would be prohibited from sounding their horns, provided the crossing had the proper safety measures installed to prevent collisions between cars and trains.

As of now, Freeport has lights, gates and bells installed at each of its crossings. Those allow the town to establish a quiet zone without installing any additional safety measures, such as a so-called “quad gate,” where the intersection has four gates blocking the crossing instead of two, preventing any traffic from getting on the tracks while the train passes.

While town has had freight trains come through on an irregular schedule for years, the issue came to a head in November with the start of Amtrak Downeaster service, which now makes two round trips through town per day. Residents and businesses along the tracks have complained about the noise.

While the council voted to establish the quiet zones, it did so without immediately requiring any additional safety measures to be installed at crossings in town. Councilors did say they would like to see some additional safety measures installed, but were concerned about the cost.

Council Chairman James Hendricks said he would like to see quad gates installed at all of the town’s intersections, but at a bare minimum, he wanted to see one installed at the Bow Street crossing, which is the busiest in town. It would cost Freeport $50,000 to retrofit the Bow Street crossing to install a quad gate there, he said.

Egan said she didn’t favor the quiet zones because she had concerns about the safety of the town’s railroad crossings if the trains’ horns were to be stopped.

“Once you stop blowing the horns, the risk goes up,” she said. “My first priority is safety.”

But she was the only one to speak out against the quiet zones. Councilor Andy Wellen said he was ready to go forward with the process.

“Let’s get this done,” he said.

The council plans to revisit the issue of any additional safety measures at the railroad crossings at a March 19 meeting.