(The following article by Justin Jouvenal was posted on the San Mateo County Times website on April 13.)
SAN MATEO, Calif. — For more than a century, the soundtrack to life on the Peninsula has been the roar of an engine, the blast of a whistle and the clang of bells on crossing arms.
The Peninsula’s rail line has been responsible for countless sleepless nights and drowned-out conversations.
But Caltrain has a number of projects in the works that could cut noise to unheard of levels in the County. From electrification to high-speed rail, a better night’s sleep could be coming down the line.
That prospect has excited Peninsula residents, who have often had to take a stoic attitude toward the train noise — it has always been here, and it always will be.
“I could hear the whistle so clear, it drove me crazy,” said Richard Silver, executive director of the Rail Riders Association of California. “It was to the point if the train came at the wrong time, you knew it.”
Silver, a San Francisco resident, used to live three blocks from the Caltrain tracks in Redwood City.
The problem has always been that the County grew up along the rails and, in some places, nearly on top of them. The tracks cut right through the most densely populated portion of the Peninsula and come within 50 feet of some homes, making the noise deafening for some residents.
A newly released environmental review shows replacing Caltrain’s diesel trains with electric versions could reduce noise for the most affected residences from 21 percent to 100 percent, depending on which system is used.
Currently more than 800 homes and apartments are in the zone most affected by Caltrain noise. Caltrain hopes to finish the $602 million-to-$865 million project by 2008, provided all the funding for the project materializes.
The high-speed rail system that planners hope will one day run between San Francisco and Los Angeles would also mean millions of dollars to remove the nearly 50 grade crossings up and down the Peninsula. That would mean less noise because Caltrain could do away with the crossing arms and horn toots that are required by law at each crossing.
That project is also facing serious hurdles. Gov. Schwarzenegger has recommended putting off a $9 billion bond measure for the project that was slated to appear on November’s ballot.
“There is a concern that it won’t pass because of the nation and the state economy,” Richard Silver said.
In the meantime, Caltrain is also continuing a program to move the horns from the tops of its engines to the undercarriages. The move concentrates the sound closer to the tracks instead of broadcasting it to surrounding neighborhoods.
“I think it would be night and day,” said Caltrain spokeswoman Jayme Kunz of the noise reduction from the various projects. “You would be eliminating horn noise, crossing noise. The noise generated by the rumbling of the train would be mitigated a great deal.”
The noise reduction would be somewhat mitigated by the fact that Caltrain hopes to run more trains. By 2020, it anticipates it will have 132 runs a day, up from 76 today.