Trying to quiet those midnight blasts

Trying to quiet those midnight blasts

By Peter Teske

Lagniappe Staff

Mobile’s Convention Center has seen its number of exhausted out-of-towners in the past few years.

The majority of these travelers make the trip to Mobile for meetings, seminars and sports events like the GMAC Bowl. They check into their hotels, drop the bags off at the room and either hit the town or walk across Water Street to do business. Both the City of Mobile and the Retirement Systems of Alabama have done a great job making sure all those bases are covered.

But Convention Center GM Bob Brazier keeps hearing that Mobile is the “city that never sleeps,” and it’s not in that “so much to do and so little time” positive kind of way.

Like our convention business, the trains that pass through downtown Mobile are pumping money into our local economy, they’re just a little louder than some can appreciate.

Among those who don’t appreciate the added noise are those red-eyed tourists who ranked the Renaissance Battle House and The Renaissance Riverview hotels, both of which are part of the Marriott chain, among the least likely places to get a restful sleep in a company survey. So in a rather noisy way, one industry has been canceling out the other.

But things look to be getting better pretty soon.

With an unknown, but potentially large amount of revenue loss and some unhappy guests staring them straight in the face, both hotels, which are owned by RSA, went to the city to seek a resolution.

In early September, the hotels found their solution when the City Council approved a downtown quiet zone for the railroads – from Adams Street on the north all the way to Eslava Street in the south. The council found that federal regulations requiring trains to sound their horns at crossings could be trumped by local government if the proper precautions are taken. After finding the loophole, the city planned to use an $800,000 bond to see that the quiet zone would be executed properly.

Elizabeth Sanders, executive director the Downtown Mobile Alliance explained the reasons behind the movement to close two of the crossings and install new technology at the other four.

“The Federal Railroads Administration created a process whereby cities could silence trains as they move through parts of the city. Prior to that there really wasn’t a good process for doing that and trains were required to blow those blasted horns. That can be a nuisance for the conduct of business during the day and certainly people trying to sleep at night,” Sanders said.

Changes that will allow trains to avoid whistle blowing include sensors and crossing gates. The updates are much anticipated for not only Sanders, but the general managers of both Renaissance properties as well.

Margo Gilbert, manager of the Battle House is anticipating the implementation of this quiet zone with all the patience she can muster.

“Needless to say, we’re very, very excited that the quiet zone is going to be going into effect shortly. Our hotel guests that have stayed in the tower portion of the hotel have been awakened throughout the night by train whistles. We measured that through our Marriott surveys and we (the Battle House and Riverview) were the two lowest among the scores for a restful nights sleep,” she said.

Gilbert and her staff have also begun contacting all of the less-than-satisfied guests from past stays to let them know changes are occurring.

“We’ve done some traces on business that we have lost in the past and folks that have elected not to return to the hotel. So, we’re actually going back and contacting some of our former guests that used to stay with us. Hopefully we’ll be able to recover them,” Gilbert said.

Speculation as to how much business was lost is difficult, but Gilbert guesses the Battle House alone has potentially surrendered 50 to 100 guest room nights of returning business from the nuisance caused by train whistles.

As for the Convention Center itself, Brazier says business hasn’t slowed, but he’s certainly looking forward to cleaning up the reputation of Mobile as a convention city as well as greeting convention attendees who have enjoyed a full night sleep.

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