Residents protest railway crossing bell in Oberndorf

Residents of Oberndorf in Salzburg are protesting a new warning bell at a railway crossing, which they say is severely disturbing their sleep, ORF Salzburg reported.

Complaints have intensified because the local railway has been conducting night test runs on the renewed line through the municipality. Each passing train activates the bell at the Marktstraße railway crossing in central Oberndorf, including during the night.

The bell is intended to warn blind and visually impaired people of approaching trains. Mayor Georg Djundja of the Social Democratic Party said the disturbance was enormous because the crossing was in a residential area. The bedrooms of nearby homes are just 15 metres from the crossing, he said, adding that residents could no longer sleep and that complaints were accumulating.

The Association of the Blind and Visually Impaired said it had not requested a permanently operating bell at the crossing. Instead, it supports an acoustic warning system that could be activated by remote control when needed, taking residents into consideration.

The state transport department said that proposal had only been made after the municipality’s complaint about the bell had already been submitted to the State Administrative Court. The department now plans to await the court’s decision before considering any changes.

The bell has been installed at only one of the three railway crossings in central Oberndorf. The other two have no acoustic warning for blind and visually impaired people.