Hushing up train horns

City, railroad set up safety lights, gates for a Quiet Zone

By Monica Rodriguez, Staff Writer

POMONA - The yellow signs mounted on the light standards just yards from the railroad tracks along First Street read, "NO TRAIN HORNS."

At this point, the message couldn't be any further from the truth.

Just ask Dereck Andrade.

The executive director of public affairs for Western University Health Sciences began working at the campus this spring and soon after noticed the trains' effects on the degrees and pictures hanging on the walls of his office.

"You can see them moving. It's like a `Lucy' episode," Andrade said.

He jokes that every morning his degrees - one from USC and the other from the University of La Verne - are out of place in what appears to be a race between the two "for top honors" set off by the sound and rumbling of the train.

For decades, train engineers have sounded their horns warning drivers and pedestrians that the steel behemoths are approaching. If all goes well, however, the horns could begin to go silent in a matter of weeks.

For years, the city has been working to meet numerous safety conditions to create a Quiet Zone - an area where trains pass through without sounding their horns - in the city.

"It seems like this has taken forever," said Councilman George Hunter, who has been working on the project as a member of the Alameda Corridor East Construction Authority.

More than a week ago, the city sent a letter to representatives of the Federal Railroad Administration requesting trains refrain from sounding their horns as of Aug. 7, said Tim D'Zmura, Pomona's city engineer/public works director.

The city worked with various agencies including Union Pacific Railroad, Metrolink, Caltrans, the state Public Utilities Commission and others to create the conditions to establish the zone, he said.

"It's been a very complicated, multi-layered process," D'Zmura said.

On the city's part there were signs to add and striping changes made. The railroad company made adjustments to crossing signals and more, he said.

One of the major elements in the process involved the Alameda Corridor-East Construction Authority, which paid for the four-quadrant gates installed at the city's five railroad crossings.

When the gates were installed, Quiet Zone regulations hadn't been set in place, but ACE officials knew the gates would be useful in creating a zone in the future, said Rick Richmond, chief executive officer of the ACE Construction Authority.

Pomona is the only city in the authority's service area that has this type of gate, he said. Medians and other measures were used to create safer crossings in other places but the close proximity of First Street to the tracks made that unworkable.

The $3.7 million gates follow a sequence that uses one set of gates to block approaching cars from getting on the tracks. A second set of arms closes after any vehicle on the tracks has moved off.

Sensors signal the arms to open should a train remain between the arms, Richmond said.

In addition, authority officials upgraded railroad warning lights along the corridor, including Pomona, as part of improvements they made, he said.

A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said the city's letter has reached the agency.

It appeared the city had met the requirements for a Quiet Zone, said Warren Flatau, spokesman for the federal agency.

The city's request will get federal review, with further input from the state Public Utilities Commission, before the Quiet Zone is established.

A Quiet Zone doesn't mean trains will never again use their horns, Flatau said.

Should a car or person be spotted close to the tracks, the engineer can still use the horn to signal the train is approaching, he said.

Mark Davis, spokesman for Union Pacific, said an average of 60 trains a day use the tracks along First Street.

Trains sound their horns a minimum of 20 seconds before reaching a crossing in a sequence - two long blasts of the horn, one short and one long - for safety purposes, Davis said.

It's easier for a motorist or pedestrian to move away from the tracks than it is for an engineer to stop a train.

"Even at 30 miles per hour it takes half a mile to stop a train," he said.

Hunter said if the Quiet Zone goes through it will have a significant effect on the quality of life all along the corridor and beyond.

As rail traffic continues to increase, the Quiet Zone will become increasingly significant, he said.

Between the grade separations and the Quiet Zone, "that will be a huge improvement in our city," Hunter said.

For some people the sound of the trains is probably no longer noticeable, Hunter said, and for some there's something special about it.

"My wife always has said that it's romantic," he said.

For Jose Santos Garcia, train noise is just a part of the environment.

Garcia lives on West Second Street near the First and Hamilton Boulevard crossing.

Thursday evening he watered his lawn when a freight train rumbled through blasting its horn.

"Truthfully, I don't notice it anymore," he said in Spanish.

Thirty years ago, when Garcia first moved into his home, the situation was different, especially at night when the noise roused him from his slumber, he said.

It took about a year for him to get used to the sound.

The Rev. Bill Moore, who lives on West Second near the Park Avenue and First Street crossing, said it took him "a couple of years" to adjust to the trains after moving into the neighborhood more than five years ago.

He realized the horn plays a role in safety, but still it was shocking.

"It's jarring," he said. "I wondered why they needed to sound (the horn) so often."

Although he's grown accustomed to the sound, it's still noticeable.

"I'll be talking on the phone and conversation is gone" when the train passes by, Moore said.