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only in emergencies. If no
quiet zone is in place,
trains must blast their
horns as they approach each
railroad crossing. The
push for quiet zones along
North County's coastal rail
route has been going on
since the Federal Railroad
Administration decided in
June 2005 to allow
communities to create such
zones, provided certain
safety guidelines were met.
Now, local interest in
quiet zones is growing as
the Sprinter light-rail line
prepares to open in
December, sending commuter
trains from Escondido to
Oceanside several times a
day. The trains would cross
roughly 36 intersections
along the route.
Still, several issues
remain unresolved, including
how to convince cities to
implement quiet zones and
how to pay for them.
Residents praise
changes
The city of Richmond,
with four established quiet
zones, is at the forefront
of the nation's new
experience with quieting
trains. Residents and
government officials there
said persistence has been
the key to silencing train
horns.
Dr. Louis Hagler, who
used to live in the city's
tony bayside "Point
Richmond" neighborhood, said
that he and his neighbors
began putting pressure on
the local, state and federal
governments in 2001 to
silence horns at nine
railroad crossings
throughout the city.
That prodding included
writing letters, calling the
city and even recording the
number of horn blasts each
day to establish a "base
level" of noise that policy
makers could use in making a
decision.
Similar levels of
activism in North County
have had fewer immediate
results.
In Carlsbad, Max Rabii,
who manages an apartment
complex next to the railroad
tracks, has tried his own
prodding of the local city
council. Despite a petition
to create a quiet zone,
there has been little action
so far. He said his tenants
often flee the loud horns.
"It shakes the building,"
Rabii said. "People, they
put their earplugs in their
ears when they sleep and it
still wakes them up."
Years of lobbying
eventually worked in
Richmond. In April 2004, the
Richmond City Council passed
a quiet zone resolution. It
took more than a year of
coordinating with rail
companies and federal
agencies for the zone to
take effect.
Hagler, who refers to
trains' warning horns as
"noise pollution," said the
silence was worth the work
and the wait, though horns
still sometimes blow in the
area.
"The quiet zones have
helped; there is
significantly less horn
blowing than there was
before," Hagler said.
David Moore, who still
lives in the Point Richmond
neighborhood, said the quiet
zone has brought serenity to
his life.
"The noise during the day
when I was working was
irritating, but the noise at
night was insufferable,"
Moore said. "When the quiet
zones were first
implemented, people were in
a bit of a daze to grasp the
idea that it could be so
quiet at night."
Richmond City Attorney
Carlos Privat said public
reaction to the first quiet
zone, the one near the
city's most expensive and
sought-after bayfront homes,
has been the most dramatic
in the year since horns
stopped blowing.
"Its helped immensely. I
don't hear their complaints.
I don't get their e-mails. I
don't get their angry
telephone calls about the
horns anymore," Privat said.
Paying for
improvements
Farther down the bay, San
Jose also has a quiet zone
in place on a 5.3-mile
extension of a light-rail
line that connects downtown
with some of the city's
suburbs.
Amy Olay, San Jose's
senior city engineer, said
that citizens living along
the tracks called for the
quiet zone and that the cost
of the extra railroad
equipment necessary to
silence train horns was
rolled into the cost of
building the rail line
extension.
"It has been up and
running at three
intersections since late
2005," she said. "Generally,
there have been no
complaints."
Officials in Richmond and
San Jose, and also in the
city of Pomona in Southern
California, said they have
paid relatively little to
institute quiet zones.
That would not be the
case in Oceanside, where the
city is considering a
five-crossing quiet zone on
the coastal rail line
through the city's beach
neighborhoods and where
residents would be asked to
foot the bill.
City documents state that
four-way gates and taller
medians would need to be
installed at those
intersections and that the
improvements would cost
between $7 million and $9
million. A special
assessment for 1,000
properties closest to the
tracks would cost property
owners between $320 and $725
per year for 20 years to
finance a bond that would
pay for the improvements,
city officials have said.
It appears unlikely that
residents are willing to
pay. In a recent city
survey, 11,000 residents who
live west of I-5 were
against a special assessment
for quiet zones by a margin
of three to one.
In Richmond, Privat said
that most of the
improvements necessary for
that city's quiet zones were
already in place. He said
the cost to get the zone up
and running had more to do
with back-and-forth
negotiations with railroads
and regulators than it did
with installing more
equipment.
Though he did not have to
pay extra for his newfound
quiet, Moore said he would
be willing to pony up for
silence.
"I would pay $700 a year
for the serenity that quiet
zones offer," Moore said.
Likewise, Hagler said the
cost would be worth it if he
found himself again living
in an area where train horns
regularly blast.
"I would be happy to pay
$300 a year. It would be a
wash in terms of what I
would save in paying for
blood pressure medication,"
Hagler said.
Contact staff writer Paul
Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or
psisson@nctimes.com.
Comment at
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San
Diego Quiet Zone
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