Silent nights

Quiet zones mean less noise when more trains start rolling.

FORT LAUDERDALE — Jay Godinez lives and works next to the Florida East Coast Railway tracks along North Dixie Highway, so he hears freight trains blasting their horns as they rumble by at all hours.

“It’s loud, and at 6 a.m. you hear the first train and they’re using their horns,” he said. “But, they are supposed to have ‘quiet zones’ so we’ll see how that goes.”

A quiet zone is an area of track with enough crossing gates, lights and other safety features so trains can pass without having to sound their horns. South Florida transportation officials are working to establish quiet zones so there will be less noise when more trains start rolling on the FEC tracks between Miami and West Palm Beach.

All Aboard Florida plans to add 32 daily Brightline high-speed passenger trains next summer to about 16 daily freight trains on the corridor that runs almost parallel to Federal Highway.

Tri-Rail commuter trains could add even more rail traffic when plans for the Coastal Link project are completed.

Local, state, federal and private entities have been working together to silence those horns in populated areas along the rail line by installing safety features to eliminate the need for loud warnings.

All Aboard Florida is making railroad crossing upgrades that would make the crossings eligible to become quiet zones.

Once federally approved safety features are in place — such as four-quadrant

crossing gates, enhanced pedestrian crossings and raised-curb medians — then locomotives would be permitted to sound their horns only in emergencies, when pedestrians or vehicles are on the tracks.

Planners in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties are also working on establishing quiet zones but using different methods.

David Trammell has two Mr. Motorscooter shops near the tracks, and he says it’s not just the horns that rattle his windows.

Freight train horns can blast up to 110 decibels for 20 seconds as they roll through more than 140 railroad crossings between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Trammell may have a simpler solution to the problem than quiet zones.

“If you don’t like the horns move somewhere else,” he said.