There’s no simple way to explain this. When train goes through our community, they are obligated to blow train horn for safety reasons. Horns are there to warn people that a train is approaching but it’s a nuisance for residents living adjacent to the corridor. With recent demand for freight mobility and passenger rail, many South Florida communities will be impacted along the FEC corridor. Naturally, there is a movement for local communities to establish quiet zones within their community to appease to residents that may be affected by the frequency of train horns.
The rules are complicated. A series of action items needed to happen from establishing a Notice of Establishment to construction for the safety enhancement along all the crossing within the zones. Other factors may be local permitting and update maintenance agreements within each crossing. This is overwhelming to local stakeholders to tackle head on. Luckily, the Palm Beach TPA, FDOT, TCRPC, and others held a stakeholder meeting to help educate on the rules and assist communities with the upcoming changes.
What’s next? New trains are more quiet than the traditional freight train and they move fast. Brightline max speed within Palm Beach County limits is 79MPH and the most effective strategy to enhance awareness and safety is to educate, educate and more education. In Orlando, red light cameras are installed at rail road crossing to help mitigate dangerous behaviors by users of the system. This is effective because violated users are now more aware due to the issuance of educational letters to let people know that they have violated federal law. There’s also resources out there for suicide prevention with grant funding available for local communities. Lastly, all communications needed to be multilingual due to the diversity that’s present within our community with any awareness campaign.
