What does it take for a railroad to establish a Quiet Zone?

Answer 1

By itself, a railroad is not allowed to establish a quiet zone under Federal regulations. The process begins with a local agency, usually city or state, identifying a section of a railroad that they wish to establish a Quiet Zone, where a train will no longer be required to use its horn at grade crossings as presently required under Federal law.

A study and a proposal has to be performed to identify a baseline of safety for the area, whihc must include each railroad crossing in the area - the second part of this is identifying what safety features will be made or added so that the area will still keep the same level of safety without use of a train horn as with a train horn. The Federal Railroad Administration oversees this and must approve the Quiet Zone application. The community must identify Supplemental Safety Measures (SSM) or Alternative Safety Measures (ASM) to enhance the safety. The most common SSM is installation of "four quad crossings", but this can also be the most expensive process. In some cases, traffic modifications by a road closure, one ways streets, and other enhancements can result in less impact to the communicaty and approval of a Quiet Zone.