Rail at a crossroad: Glendale's quiet zone is on track

Council passed the final ordinance needed to stop train horns from sounding as locomotives travel through village

Jennie Key
Cincinnati Enquirer
Glendale Village Council passed an ordinance that will set a quiet zone that would require trains to pass through the village without sounding their horns.

 

It won't be silent.

There will still be the clatter of steel wheels on metal rails, the roar of cars as they pass by Glendale homes and businesses. But the jarring, almost mournful wail of the train horn? A memory.

In Glendale, where stately homes are face-to-face with CSX tracks, the horns shatter the quiet of this community regularly. And thanks to the generosity of some village residents, the sounds of those warning bleats from the trains that pass through will stop.

Glendale Village Council voted to move ahead with a quiet zone at its Aug. 28 meeting, finishing a process that's taken more than a year and a conversation that's gone on longer than that.

One resident said she had asked city officials about the train noise when she was buying her house and was told a quiet zone was in the works to silence the horns. "That was 16 years ago," she said. "This is a good thing."

Lisa Spalding says she's lived in Glendale all her life. She said she lives about 1,000 feet from the tracks. 

"The trains are louder now," she said. "We have three crossings, and some of the engineers hold the horn while they go through all three."

She says while she's losing the crossing near her home – the city plans to close the Albion crossing – she supports the quiet zone. "It's constant, and there are more trains every day, it seems," she said. "If you are out back in the yard, you have to stop talking until the train has passed."

Glendale has an average 64 trains a day and three crossings, exposing residents to horn noise for more than 96 minutes a day, or 585 hours a year. And it’s only going to get worse. The OKI Regional Transportation Plan projects train traffic through Glendale will grow by 38 percent by 2040.

Hugh Staples says his father bought his family home in 1972 and added extra insulation when he added on to muffle the noise from the railroad. "It's not convenient to have the crossing closed," he said. "But I would say it's a reasonable trade-off."

Council was unanimous in its support of the ordinance that established the quiet zone. Residents in attendance applauded following the vote. It takes effect in 30 days.

More: Shhh! Glendale exploring a train Quiet Zone

More:Four Loveland railroad crossings becoming Quiet Zones

The city has done a lot of work to get to this point and there's still a lot to be done. The village will send a "Notice of Intent to Establish a Quiet Zone" to the Ohio Rail Development Commission, CSX and other railroads using the tracks including Norfolk Southern and Amtrak. The notice will be made public and ORDC and the railroads will have 60 days to comment.

The Albion and pedestrian crossings will be closed. Pavement will be removed and the grounds restored at the crossing area.  The existing pedestrian crossing from the municipal parking lot to the Village square is considered unsafe and must be removed for Glendale to qualify for a Quiet Zone. Steps have to be taken to direct visitors to cross safely at Sharon Road. Initially, the quiet zone committee planned to use planters and landscaping to discourage people from crossing the tracks.

Residents asked for stronger safeguards. In response, the committee proposed a decorative metal fence, running along the eastern track, the length of the parking lot. There will also be new lighting to highlight the safe crossing.

The Sharon Road crossing will get a second set of gates, a vehicle detection system at Sharon crossing. Sharon Road and Oak Avenue crossings will be upgraded to LED lighting, with constant warning time and a power-out indicator.


The remaining crossings will have enhanced safety measures, as the existing single-arm gates that block traffic at each crossing will be replaced by four-quadrant boom barrier gates that extend across the entire grade crossing. Sensors will be installed to detect vehicles stopped on the tracks.

Village officials and CSX will sign an agreement for maintenance of the track sensors. The village of Glendale has received $280,037 in Quiet Zone donations from December 2016 through July 2017. Glendale Administrator Walter Cordes says that's a pretty good indicator of community support.

Once all the security measures have been completed, village officials will file a Notice of Establishment of a Quiet Zone with the FRA, with copies to ORDC and the railroads. Officials say warning signs will be posted, but covered, stating "No Train Horns."

At that point, the railroads will have 28 days to stop sounding their horns routinely and to restrict their horns to emergencies. The signs will be uncovered when the Quiet Zone begins.

The next step for Glendale residents once that's done?

Sleep with the windows open.