Palo Alto train horn ‘quiet zone’ delayed over traffic concerns

Palo Alto residents living near the city’s northernmost Caltrain crossing will have to wait a bit longer for relief from the horn that blares each time a train passes by.

The city has been pursuing “quiet zones,” a federal designation, at each of its four rail crossings where car and bike traffic intersect with the tracks: Palo Alto Avenue, Churchill Avenue, Meadow Drive and Charleston Road. Normally, trains are required to blare their horn four times to signal their approach to a grade crossing, but a quiet zone designation allows them to waive the noise in favor of more secure gates to prevent cars, bikes and pedestrians from accessing the tracks when a train is passing by.

To date, the city has completed much of the work that would be required to establish the quiet zone near the Menlo Park border, including installation of a median island, bicycle striping and the extensions of the protected left-turn lane. But the city still needs to restripe pavement before a quiet zone could be authorized.

Residents have long raised the alarm on the blistering horn, which reaches 100 decibels in volume starting at 5 a.m. with the first Caltrain until the last one well past midnight.

The Palo Alto Avenue crossing was the first to earn approval by city officials for quiet zone implementation with a four-quadrant gate system. The city completed work outlined by the Federal Railroad Administration in June for the quiet zone at Palo Alto Avenue, but the project is being delayed because of traffic congestion concerns near and on the tracks.