Beginning in January, trains running in the city's urban areas will use the honk to the minimum and even avoid it in some places, the Shanghai Railway Administration announced over the weekend.

"The new rule will help reduce noise pollution and enable residents living in the proximity of a railway station to have a much more quieter life," said Gong Daozeng, deputy director of the administration.

Residents would welcome the move which comes following a rise in complaints about the major noise irritant.

"I've been suffering this noise for several years now since I bought an apartment which is just several hundred meters away from the railway lines," said Feng Wencha, a 25-year-old woman living near Shanghai Railway Station. "I've never enjoyed a quiet moment at my own home. Hopefully, the new rule will bring in much-needed relief."

Railway authorities said the use of sirens is banned in some areas unless there are dangers to railway workers or any other people or to the trains themselves. The areas are between Jiangqiao town and Shanghai Railway Station on the Shanghai-Nanjing route; between Chunshen town and the Shanghai Railway Station on the Shanghai-Hangzhou line; between Nanxiang and Hejiawan stations; and stations on the old Shanghai-Hangzhou line.

In other parts of the city, trains will reduce the use of sirens. For instance, the sound pitch will be shorter and sirens that blared out thrice will now be reduced to two.

Yuan jiaji, a railway official, said that it is too risky to completely abandon the use of sirens.

"We cannot stop it completely as it has a very important function to play which helps cut down the number of accidents," Yuan said.

Yuan said that as many as 400 accidents were avoided because of sirens in the first eleven months of this year alone.

Railway authorities have also spent a good bit of money to put up strong barriers to keep people away from the railway lines. "If it works, sirens would hardly be needed at all," Gong said.

Yuan said train drivers usually use the sirens to send signals about a train's movement to railway workers. The use of radio waves in the future may cut down that bit of the noise as well, the railway official said.

(eastday.com December 16, 2002)