Contrary to what many people are saying, the City is not building a series of Quiet Zones but rather an entire contiguous corridor.
By law, a train must use its horn for 15 seconds before crossing a road. A Quiet Zone is an area where engineers are not required to sound the horn.
To avoid the train whistle clause, these intersections must have signals and traffic arms installed. The cost associated in assessing what each intersection needs to ensure safe passage for cars, pedestrians and trains can be anywhere between $5,000-$7,000, with gates costing upwards to $500,000.
The City will be equipping the above safety measures at 30 rail crossings and they are already installed at the Wilkinson Street, King Street, Rollins Street, and Princeton Street crossings.
Other cities along the SunRail corridor (DeBary, Sanford, Lake Mary, Longwood, Casselberry, Altamonte Springs, and Edgewood) are either not interested or are unable to cover the cost of installing quiet zones in their limits.
According to the City, the estimated total cost of the project is $2,783,425.03. FDOT has committed 35 percent of the cost at $974,198.76 and The City will pay the remaining $1,809,226,27.
The entire project is estimated to be finished in summer 2017.
The Mayor wrote about it back in April, HERE.
CraigVerniel If a quiet zone is installed it applies to all trains running on the corridor at any time, day or night. CSX engineers should abide by the quiet zone rules at night unless there is danger in which case the train horn would be blown for safety purposes.
Unless CSX is required to follow these guidelines, this is a waste of time. SunRail’s horns w/ noise abatement devices are whisper quiet compared to their freight counterparts, which run all through the night while people are sleeping. I live less than 100 yards from the rail line and can speak from experience, some of those CSX engineers are downright sadistic.