What Is a Train Quiet Zone?

So what’s the sound problem?

More than a simple nuisance, these train movements force residents to hear train horns at all hours of the day and night, disrupting daily life. Here’s why San Mateo residents living near grade-level railroad crossings have a noise problem:

Train counts along the Villa Terrace and East Bellevue Avenue railway crossing corridor reach up to 104 Caltrain commuter trains per day. Yes — that’s 104 trains a day.

Beginning one-quarter mile before each railroad crossing, the Federal Railroad Administration requires all passenger and freight trains to activate their horns four times: two long loud blasts, one short blast, followed by one long loud blast. The purpose of those horn blasts is to warn people of an approaching train.

But given the speed of the train and the short three-sixteenth mile distance between Villa Terrace and East Bellevue Avenue, neighborhood residents hear the horn blasts as a continuous roar — from trains reaching volume levels up to 110 decibels. (By comparison, during takeoff, a Boeing 737 jet reaches 98 decibels.)

The good news is the FRA allows trains to omit those horn blasts if the oncoming rail crossings are safe from vehicular intrusions. And how do you accomplish that?

Solution: Install quad gates at the rail crossings.

If the city wants to create a successful Train Quiet Zone, the solution is that simple. All the city needs to do is install quad gates.

And what are quad gates? And how do they work?

Quad gates are a four-quadrant gate system — comprised of four gates that block all lanes of through traffic — which prevent motor vehicles from driving around gates when they are in the down position. This prevents vehicles from driving onto the tracks during a train event.

The gates on the departure side of the crossing include a delayed lowering action compared to the entry gates. The exit gates remain up and won’t go down if the gate mechanism detects a vehicle on the tracks. The delay ensures no vehicles are at risk, thus protecting both sides of the crossing.

The California Public Utilities Commission requires vehicle presence detectors at all crossings using a four-quadrant gate system.

Horn-blast sound problem solved — and safety problem solved too.

There are, however, other points of view on how best to create a workable Train Quiet Zone. The city of San Mateo proposes two options called Option A and Option B. Both involve extended medians (100 feet long) and permanent street/rail crossing closures.

Nontraversable medians are used to prevent gate go-arounds. The concrete medians have an 8-inch vertical height that discourages passenger vehicles from driving over the median and through the downed gates.

But the median solution isn’t ideal — it impacts ingress and egress from several driveways at nearby homes and apartments, and the 100-foot median would eliminate eight on-street parking spaces. Not good.

The permanent street/rail crossing closure is also a poor idea. Although the city claims studies show the closures will have no impact on traffic circulation in the area, common sense holds that closing Villa Terrace and East Bellevue Avenue — two key crossings between east and west San Mateo — will cause delays and disruption, especially during peak traffic hours.

This is compounded by the trend toward higher-density housing in the area. Conversations I’ve had with planning and development professionals agree.

Lastly, a word about costs. Sources involved in preparing cost estimates for quad-gate installation in a neighboring city report construction costs of approximately $2 million per crossing.

Permit processing to create a Train Quiet Zone is time consuming and involves multiple agencies — city, county, state and federal. The process may take about two years. So there’s plenty of time to find funding.

Creation of a Train Quiet Zone is an excellent idea. The FRA requires rail crossings within a quarter mile of one another to be merged into a single Train Quiet Zone. In response, the city of San Mateo must combine East Bellevue Avenue and Villa Terrace crossings into one zone.

And still I wonder, as I sit gazing out my living room window — will that enhanced living condition ever happen? Or will this area of San Mateo remain last on the city’s list of environmental improvements?

And then a train rumbled down the tracks.

Chris Minerva is a local businessman.