Trains traveling through downtown San Diego will again stop sounding their horns when approaching railroad crossings, now that the Federal Railroad Administration has reinstated the area’s designated train “quiet zone.”
The city’s quiet zones were temporarily suspended two weeks ago after an inspection found safety violations that needed to be fixed.
Trains have since been blaring their horns between the Laurel Street and Fifth Avenue crossings as city crews worked to bring 12 intersections into compliance with federal standards.
Mayor Todd Gloria said Tuesday in a statement that the city’s Transportation Department had expedited all of the required sign installations and striping to get the quiet zone restored more quickly than anticipated.
City crews created and installed more than 120 railroad crossing signs and new road markings at downtown crossings.
On Friday, the city submitted documentation to show the improvements had been completed, along with a required traffic survey to count how many vehicles enter the crossings daily.
The regulator sent the city a letter Monday confirming its quiet zones were once again fully compliant with safety regulations, allowing trains to stop routinely sounding their horns.
Transit agencies have seven days to comply with the quiet zone reinstatement. North County Transit District and the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System had both already suspended the use of train horns in the area by Tuesday. BNSF Railway, which operates freight trains, acknowledged the receipt of the request but had not yet reinstated the quiet zone.
Pedestrians cross the train tracks downtown on Tuesday.
(Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
The suspension comes after a rash of fatal train strikes in the region, with four people hit and killed on the coastal train tracks in the span of five days this month. A number of people have also been struck by trains downtown, where there are many grade crossings, in recent years.
San Diego’s $21 million quiet-zone safety system downtown, designed to reduce the decibel level of train horns at grade-level intersections, was approved by the City Council in 2010. Because of the sophisticated warning systems, trains were no longer required to sound their horns for 15-20 seconds upon approach.
