What happens roughly 656 times each day in Marshalltown? A train traveling through town blows its horn. That is what a so-called “Quiet ZOne” would help eliminate all those horns. Establishing a quiet zone is part of the Downtown Master Plan recently adopted by the Marshalltown City Council. At last night’s City Council meeting Greg Broussard of consultant Bolton & Menk presented a proposal on such a zone, which would be just over six miles long.

Broussard cautioned that the Quiet Zone would not apply to horns that are sounded in the main rail yard, just to those trains passing through town.  He estimates it would cost the city one million dollars to transform the crossings through the City to qualify them for a quiet zone. A meeting to obtain public input is the next step in the process.