Hamilton has 24 at-grade crossings, and train engineers are required to blast horns four times at each crossing. Messer said that equates to more than 1,800 times a day a train horn blares in the city. Up to several dozen trains pass through Hamilton daily.
Messer is proposing the quiet zone be at seven crossings, from Hanover to Heaton streets, which see the most train traffic in the city. Eliminating the requirement of sounding a horn four times at each of the seven crossings would eliminate more than half of the 1,800, he said.
However, that requires safety improvements — and in the case of two crossings, closures — at each at-grade crossing.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
There are more than 1,000 quiet zones in U.S. cities, according to the National League of Cities, which is up from around 700 five years ago.
The quiet zone, or as Messer calls it, a “quieter” zone, will not totally eliminate train noises as there will still be engines roaring through town, the squealing of metal wheels on metal tracks as they navigate turns, and conductors would still sound the horn if something is in the way.
With the elimination of the safety horns, Hamilton must invest in other safety measures.
“The improvements you make have to offset the safety of the trains no longer sounding their horns,” Messer said, which includes installing safety elements like lights, gates and medians.
Upgrades are expected to cost upwards of $1 million at some crossings. But costs would be reduced by eliminating crossings, specifically, Butler and Ludlow streets.
Butler Street was already going to close to due the recent Hilton hotel development, but there’s not enough traffic to warrant a six-figure investment to improve Ludlow Street, especially since Maple Avenue is 400 feet to the north.
There are a number of health benefits of quiet zones, including reductions in: sleep disturbances, cognitive and learning impairments, mental health impacts, hearing impairments and cardiovascular issues.
Messer said the city had considered a quiet zone as part of the North Hamilton Crossing project.
City Councilman Michael Ryan said he walked the proposed quiet zone corridor with Messer and Federal Railroad Administration and railroad representatives. He called the initiative “critical” in economic development but also residential development.
“I know it sounds expensive, but the bigger picture here, the quiet zone is a quality-of-life investment for some of our most underserved neighborhoods,” he said. “This initiative, if we can get it done, will lift that quality of life for Riverview, Jefferson, North End and Dayton Lane.”
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