Move to silence train horns in California town

Steve Kamau is tired of "noise pollution" from Union Pacific trains sounding their horns as they ramble through Manteca, Calif., often at speeds in excess of 55 mph, the Manteca Bulletin reports. The Manteca resident has launched a signature gathering effort at the ipetitions.com site aimed at collecting signatures to try and convince the City Council to address the issue.

It won’t be easy. Forty
months ago a similar effort failed. While it didn’t fall on deaf ears – the
council was sympathetic – the main hang-up was the cost. Staff research in
mid-2007 indicated it would cost the city anywhere from $1.6 million to $180
million to address the issue of loud train whistles.

Kamau’s "quiet zone"
approach, though, would be less costly assuming Union Pacific, the Federal
Railroad Administration and California Public Utilities Commission agree that
Manteca meets conditions similar to those that it took to establish similar
areas in cities such as San Diego and Richmond. The criteria for the establishment
of a "quiet zone" includes active warning devices being in place and that
advanced warning signs alerting motorists that train horns are not sounded at
the crossing.

The "quiet zone" request could
be dicey simply based on the fact there have been three pedestrian versus train
incidents – two fatal – in the past decade at Manteca rail crossings.

Kamau’s petition points to
the loss of sleep from loud train horns being a health issue. He notes the
eight-foot sound wall placed between Atherton Drive and the rail tracks in
southeast Manteca was helpful to near-by one-story homes in the Tesoro
neighborhood but not two-story homes.

Kamau wrote that, "Given
the extent of the railway in Manteca, we all most likely share similar if not
identical issues with the train horn."

The three options explored
back in 2007 by the council were:

* relocating the train
tracks into rural areas outside Manteca, which is highly unlikely.

* constructing elevated
bridges at the city’s nine at-grade track crossings at a cost of at least $180
million.

* putting in place the wayside
horn system for $1.6 million that the insurance authority providing coverage
for Manteca said could open the city to major damage awards should lawsuits
occur with train-vehicle accidents after the system is installed.

Federal law requires train
engineers to sound horns a quarter of a mile in advance of an at-grade
crossing. Manteca has nine such crossings. As a result, engineers sound the
horn all the way through the city.

Previous studies for
bridges at tracks at Yosemite Avenue, Center Street, Main Street and Industrial
Park Drive concluded adjoining land uses would be severely impacted or
eliminated. The city has, however, at one time adopted plans for a bridge
crossing of the railroad on Airport Way when that major north-south arterial
becomes six lanes in the future.

Should the city revisit the
wayside horn system there are a number of points the 2007 study made including:

* There is no guarantee the
engineer won’t sound the horn if they perceive a hazard exists.

* There are no federal or
state funding sources.

* The city would be
required to carry up to $6 million more in insurance and agree to hold the
railroad harmless.

* The Municipal Pooling
Authority, which administers the city’s liability program, had a request for
such coverage from the City of Martinez that they denied insurance the
increased risk could be detrimental to the 19 cities in the pool and that such
coverage was difficult if not impossible to obtain.

* All nine at-grade
crossings would need to be done at a cost of $1.6 million to make the system
effective.

* Wayside horns would
drastically reduce noise if not eliminate it as far as impacting nearby homes
and businesses.

The wayside horns warning
system that puts a series of loudspeakers – three typically at a crossing – are
activated when a train approaches. The decibels are not only lower but the
noise is directed by loudspeakers at the crossing primarily to the motorists
that need to be warned. The system was first put in place in Roseville eight
years ago on crossings were trains either slow down or pick up speed at the
marshaling yards located in that community. Less than a half-dozen cities have
followed suit with wayside horns.