Jefferson City Council members and the public learned more about what is involved in establishing a Railroad Quiet Zone in Jefferson following an hour-long own hall meeting on Tuesday evening.
U.S. Federal Railroad Administration’s Richard Washington was on hand to discuss quiet zones and the types of things which need to be considered.
Washington is a Highway-Rail Grade Crossing and Trespass Prevention Inspector and Quiet Zone Expert. He presented information based on Code of Federal Regulations Transportation Code Chapter 49.
Washington said the FRA “permits” Quiet Zones but does “not promote” them.
He said the current rules require a train to sound the horn 15-20 seconds before occupying a public highway crossing but cannot sound it before quarter mile of the crossing.
Opponents of a Quiet Zone took to social media after the meeting voicing there disapproval.
Once such online post read, “No Train Horn Increases Risk [by] 66.8% increase in probability of a collision.”
“I went to the town hall meeting tonight regarding a Quiet Zone,” wrote Kim Shaw. “This percentage is alarming. We need to keep our citizens and visitors safe.”
JEDCO chairman Bubba Haggard agreed.
“What I fear is a tourist and/or their family being hurt or worse at the crossing on Austin St.,” Haggard said online. “There is a lot of pedestrians walking over that crossing… What you see here [on Facebook] is people that want a QZ saw what they wanted and the ones against it saw what they wanted, so nothing is changed very much.”
Washington verified the risk percentage several times during the presentation, but specified that the number was if no additional safety measures were taken into account, and the crossing was rural and only had crossbucks.
He also said this was the beginning figure FRA uses before permitting a QZ to be implemented and that they calculate the probability of a chance for an accident to occur after additional safety features are installed or proposed. This re-calculation usually lowers the risk to a threshold FRA and the railroads are OK with.
Supporters of a QZ focused their questions on determining the costs of the project prior to making a final decision.
“How many people here want to know how much this will cost,” asked Jim McIntosh. McIntosh has the one private crossing potentially impacted by a QZ. “Let’s get some real numbers and then make a decision. Maybe we can do this. Maybe not. But until we get real numbers we’ll never know,” he said.
Citizens learned despite their desire for a QZ, “only a public authority can establish or apply for a QZ,” according to the presentation.
“If the Council, or Mayor doesn’t want a quiet zone,” Washington said, “then it’s done.” He also said all public authorities in the zone must approve before it can be implemented.
There are several steps required before a request is considered, he said. The least of which is a 60-day comment period for state DOT, FRA, and all railroads impacted by the QZ. The public authority must also work with railroads to establish costs of additional safety measures and any subsequent maintenance costs.
According to his presentation, “to establish a new QZ, all public crossings must have: gates and lights; a constant warning time; and a power out indicator; be at least a half mile long; and the FRA inventory information on each crossing must be current and accurate.”
Washington cited the FRA’s Quiet Zone Calculator which allows an approved entity to review the crossings in a proposed zone and make necessary updates as needed.
The Jimplecute opened the calculator during the meeting and found there are 12 public crossings and one private crossing which would have to be figured into the proposal.
The Jimplecute found the data has not been updated in some time, and Washington confirmed if there wasn’t a date with the information, it was “probably out of date.” As an example, the FRA data shows a railroad crossing on Henderson Street near downtown. That crossing supposedly has 600+ vehicles crossing it daily and that there are only seven trains per day at that intersection. In reality, the Henderson Street crossing has been closed for over 20 years making it impossible for vehicle traffic to cross there, and there are more than 12 trains per day.
All of the open crossings in the city limits have lights and gates, except for one on N. Haywood Street. The private crossing, just south of Big Cypress Bayou, only has crossbucks (signage). Both Haywood and the private crossing would require additional safety measures on the tracks at a minimum.
Other safety measures may be needed at other crossings in town depending on their location, traffic flow, etc. Those additional safety measures would be the responsibility of the City to fund, install, and maintain.
All crossings are required to be inspected on a regular basis to maintain the QZ status.
However, Washington pointed out that just because a QZ is established, it is ultimately up to the discretion of the train engineer whether to sound the horn in an emergency.
Washington also pointed out areas that the City should consider in establishing a QZ. Those included people on the tracks to take photos, pedestrians at the crossings, animals and pets on the tracks, work crews, vehicles parked close to the tracks. There are some safety measures that can be taken to help lessen those items occurring, but they are at the expense of the City, but are good practice. Those items also do not prevent the engineer, if they choose, from sounding the train horn.
There were approximately 50 people in attendance at the Town Hall, many of whom had additional questions.
Those present raised issues as to what impact a QZ had on power or operational failures at crossings; whether studies conducted by third party companies were beneficial; and what the costs were.
While Washington didn’t have specific answers for some of the questions, he indicated that there was a lot of research and information a City needed to get before proceeding. As far as gate or power failures were concerned he said that the power out indicator is for the train engineer and lets them know the power is out at the crossing so they can take appropriate measures.
Alderman April Taylor-Johnson suggested someone talk with the City of Daingerfield which just established a QZ and see what they had to do and the costs they incurred.
Jefferson Mayor Rob Baker re-iterated that this was just a first step in getting this information and that the Council needed to consider where to go from here – whether that was establishing a committee or appointing an individual to get the updated information – had not been determined yet but that he felt Council should discuss where to go from here.
Alderman Richard Turner expressed his opposition to a QZ citing that the City should be using any funds for improvements instead of a QZ.
Alderman Robin Moore said she was working with City Secretary Melissa Boyd to find out insurance implications for the City.
Alderman Will Thomas had requested the Town Hall and had coordinated Washington to be here and make the presentation.
Aldermen Hollis Shadden and Jim Finstrom had no comments during the Town Hall.