A freight train - chugging over a set of recently laid tracks at 600 West and South Temple Wednesday evening - marked the halfway point in a $50 million Grant Tower realignment project that seeks to hush trains and move them away from homes along 900 South.

Union Pacific reactivated its 900 South track in late 2001 to divert trains away from Grant Tower, where a bottleneck of sharp curves forces locomotives to crawl through at 10 mph. That change - rail traffic had stopped along that spur in 1999 - came much to the chagrin of those who live a mere 40 feet away.

But with tracks being laid and speeds soon-to-be quadrupled along the newly reconfigured Grant Tower tracks farther north, Union Pacific, by mid-2008, will shift train traffic and hand over the 900 South corridor to Salt Lake City.

Capital officials have said they want to create an urban trail along the right of way for pedestrians and bicyclists.

U.P. would also free up a track along Folsom Avenue, on 45 South, from 700 West to the Jordan River. That could eventually be used as a pathway to bring now-underground City Creek to the surface.

Mayor Rocky Anderson on Wednesday praised the Grant Tower project, which is ahead of schedule and should be finished by November.

"I slept over at a home that's 30 feet away from the [900 South] tracks, and it shook the house," Anderson said. "Things were falling off the shelves. There is no way you could become accustomed to those sorts of things. This is a project that is crucial for the future of our community and an even better quality of life."

Edie Trimmer, a former Poplar Grove Community councilwoman, said she is encouraged that the area is on the verge of relief.

"People have to feel a sense of a future, a good future - that's part of what makes a neighborhood work," Trimmer said. "Having that [900 South line reactivated] was a big shock to people. Until that time people had a great sense of hope, but they lost a lot of faith. This is about rebuilding that faith."

Salt Lake City Councilman Van Turner, who represents the areas affected by the realignment, said the tracks cut through the Poplar Grove and Glendale neighborhoods. Now those areas can become a place to recreate.

The city's deputy engineer, John Naser, added that a state-of-the-art train-signal system will prevent cars from driving around gates in the Grant Tower area. In addition, faster-moving trains will prevent transients from hopping on board, and students at neighboring West High School will no longer be tempted to crawl between slow-moving train cars.

The project is being funded by federal, county and city money in addition to funds from Union Pacific and the Utah Transit Authority. UTA will be building a commuter-rail line a mere 25 feet from some portions of the reconfigured track.

sgehrke@sltrib.com