(The following story by Dianna M. Náñez appeared on the Arizona Republic website on August 14.)
PHOENIX, Ariz. — Despite the spike in accidents and hefty price tag associated with whistle bans, Tempe and several Arizona other cities are working to silence train horns.
Federal regulations require railway engineers to sound their horn before going through a public railroad crossing. But nationally, residents living near railroad lines are increasingly getting fed up with whistles blowing day and night and at levels legally allowed to reach 110 decibels – about as loud as a chainsaw.
Neighborhoods are pushing cities to take advantage of a 2005 federal law that makes it easier to adopt railroad quiet zones where engineers are banned from using horns except in emergencies.
There are currently an estimated 311 quiet-zone applications active or on file with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). Tempe, Sun City, Maricopa, Phoenix and Flagstaff are among the Arizona municipalities working to implement quiet zones.
But the silence comes at a cost.
A 2000 federal study found collisions were 64 percent more likely to occur at gated crossings with bans than at similar crossings without bans.
To help prevent quiet-zone accidents, the FRA requires cities to work with its local railroad to implement safety measures. Such measures can include the installation of crossing gates, which cost $300,000 to $500,000, a warning system that can cost as much as $400,000 and another $4,000 to $10,000 for annual maintenance, according to Union Pacific Railroad estimates. Cities can seek federal waivers to buffer safety costs but according to some legal experts, in the event of an accident, fewer safeguards could increase a city’s risk of liability.
Tempe has set aside more than $500,000 for crossing improvements and is working with federal authorities and Union Pacific Railroad to design a plan for meeting quiet-zone safety guidelines. Marc Pearsall, a Tempe transportation planner, said the city hopes to start construction before the end of the year.
Downtown Phoenix developers are pushing for quiet zones near sites targeted for future hotel projects. Sun City recently worked out an agreement with BNSF Railway to begin work on crossing improvements for a quiet zone. And some Flagstaff residents were so anxious to ban horns in their neighborhood they petitioned the city last month to postpone work on a quiet zone until it could consider an alternative plan that would pay for an expansion of the zone.
Pearsall said cities have to respond to residents who are becoming more urbanized and want nothing to do with the remnants of rural life.
“Neighborhoods that have been in Tempe for basically 130 years have become accustomed to the railroad horns. It’s just in the last 10 years that there’s been an evolution,” he said. “It’s a quality of life issue for the residents.”
After nearly 10 years of living near Tempe’s Union Pacific Railroad line, Dan Durrenberger said he thinks Tempe should invest in fighting noise pollution and not worry about the rare train accident.
“You move to where you want to live and then you change the world to conform to how you want to live,” he said. “Just because there’s a train track and just because it’s been there for 100 years doesn’t mean it has to continue to blow its horn.”