Norcross, Minus the Train Horns?

When Lee Kellogg moved from Ohio to Historic Norcross about a year ago, he felt that he’d found something truly unique: A walkable, historic downtown in the metro Atlanta suburbs. Kellogg was bothered by one thing though, the cacophony of noise from passing trains’ air horns. 

Kellogg said that while sitting on his front porch, he would exchange words with potential homebuyers in the Seven subdivision. He heard their concerns too. Could they actually sleep through all that noise?

Kellogg said that now he’s mostly gotten used to it, but he has become interested in the idea of establishing a “Quiet Zone” in the city limits--and has taken it up as a cause of sorts.  “The city has put so much into downtown. They have redone the sidewalks and have music piping in. This just seems like the next step,” he said.

Warren Flatau, spokesperson for the Federal Railroad Administration, said that the Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Air Horns at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings, enacted in 2005 and last updated in 2009, standardized the horn toot that trains make at all crossings—and that it also paved the way for individual governments to set up Quiet Zones.

One reason he’s seen 440 locations move to establish Quiet Zones as of Jan. 24 is that there’s simply more train traffic. “Railroad traffic—even with the recession—is up to record levels,” he said. “Also, in many cases rail traffic was consolidated to a few lines.”

Marilyn Meacham, a local real estate agent, said she nips any train dystopia in the bud by “having a serious train talk” with potential buyers. “I’m train sensitive—I point it out to everyone,” she said. Meacham even went so far as letting a couple spend the night in a vacant home so they could do a test run of a night with the horns.

She said she doesn’t have all the information needed to make an informed decision about a Quiet Zone but that she probably wouldn’t feel comfortable with it, since Thrasher Park neighbors a busy pedestrian train crossing at Jones St. 

Safety is the top concern of citizens when the prospect of a Quiet Zone comes up.

In a recent editorial in the Forum, an online publication about Gwinnett edited by Norcross's own Elliott Brack, Kellogg laid out his case for adopting a Quiet Zone in Norcross. “Quiet Zones make downtown quality of life better simply by improving the environment for potential commercial investments, which can’t but help in the fragile economic recovery stronger,” Kellogg wrote.

His point was countered in a subsequent issue in another editorial by a former worker the Florida East Coast Railroad. Robert Hanson of Loganville wrote that “the number of grade crossing accidents soared” after “no horn” laws went into effect.

Kellogg points out that additional measures are required before a Quiet Zone can be established—and that the safety incidents in Florida happened before the new law went into effect. In addition to the current bells, lights and gates, an official zone would have either “supplementary” or “additional” safety measures, like channel dividers, which are concrete slabs similar to those found in parking lots. The dividers would essentially keep people from going around the arms. 

Flatau said that communities do a “risk assessment” using an online calculator on the FRA’s site, and then are required to establish additional safety measures. The cheapest of those measures, according to Kellogg, would be those channel dividers. The technical term used by the FRA is a “traffic separator channelization device.”

“The whole purpose is that if someone was trying to circumnavigate the gate arms, they’d have to go over the median,” says Flatau.

According to a preliminary calculation on the site, establishing a Quiet Zone with medians at the five Norcross train crossings would actual lower the risk index.

The FRA establishes a “significant risk threshold” every year based on accidents at train crossings. As of Jan. 29, 2011, that index is 14,007. With the current horn crossing, the calculator shows Norcross’s risk index is 26,840.46.

If the city were to establish a Quiet Zone and install “curb medians with or without channelization” at all five crossings, that risk index number goes down to 8,953, according to the preliminary numbers in the calculator.

The other concern of citizens is that a Quiet Zone would do away with what makes Norcross Norcross. James Blake, who lives on N. Peachtree St. and also has a home for sale nearby said that, yes, the train noise was his first question when moving in, but that he’s has adjusted quickly. “It has kind of been a drawing point, actually,” he said.

Flatau points out that first a local government body must sponsor the measure, then work in concert with the state Department of Transportation and the railroad company to see the measure through.

The city did sponsor a study to look at the possibility of a Quiet Zone several years ago. It found that the measure would cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million, according to Kellogg, but he says that Smyrna recently adopted the measure—and that after a conversation with their City Engineer and a look at the FRA’s website, he sees the cost being around $100,000, a number that could be bumped up after a closer look at the individual crossings.

The five crossing points in the Norcross city limits would each likely require a unique fix. According to Kellogg's early calculations, the crossings at Autry St., Holcomb Bridge Rd. and Jones St. may comply with the addition of channel dividers. The crossing closest to Rock Tenn would likely need longer arms.

It looks like the best solution—at least for now—is to keep your earplugs near the bed.