This graphic shows several devices that can be used to increase safety at railroad crossings. Source: Federal Highway Administration.

Many months ago I asked the Council to consider establishing quiet zones along the railroad lines that bisect Garland north to south and east to west. We learned that the Garland Transportation Dept was already studying the issue. It turned out that we could not simply pass an ordinance and say "Don't Blow Your Horns" because of federal regulations. After studying the regulations, I think they are quite good. To not use horns would, of course, be a safety issue for anyone crossing the tracks. The regulations address safety and quiet.
 
The regulations basically stipulate that we can establish quiet zones if we have adequate safety measures in place that precludes the need for horns. Safety gates and medians where motorists can't simply drive around them help meet the requirements but there are numerous devices that can alert motorists that they are about to cross a railroad track and to look for trains. We have been upgrading our crossings for several years. Some may remember a couple horrific incidents years ago when trains collided with motorists locally.
 
The Transportation Dept has chosen to focus on the KCS line that runs from Sachse along Lavon Ave and to south Garland along Garland Rd. Most of the crossings have adequate safety devices to allow us to qualify for quiet zones. The exception is the State St crossing just east of City Hall where there are no gates or medians. The state once had the crossing listed for funds to make the changes but the project was canceled by TxDOT. The KCS estimate was twice the allocated funds for the crossing. Staff is asking that those funds be restored. The recently approved Capital Improvement Program budget includes funds to cover half the deficit and TxDOT is expected to reinstate the project. The improvements are expected to be completed this year.
 
The formula for federal approval is a little more complicated than a crossing-by-crossing tabulation of acceptable or unacceptable. It considers the cumulative number of devices along the zone. Staff feels that the State St improvements and a few others improvements along the line would bring us into compliance range.
 
Establishing quiet zones is actually harder for larger cities, especially any that don't have all the infrastructure in place to reach compliance, because of the greater number of crossings. For the KCS line, Garland is essentially one crossing away from being able to pass that Quiet Zone ordinance. We are hoping that it can be done this year.
 
The DART line is not currently being considered. While it is a good example of a line with safety devices, implementation of a quiet zone is much more complicated. The light rail tracks in the same corridor with heavy freight lines, with a minimum of three sets of tracks, is much more difficult than the generally single-line KCS tracks.
 
For additional information, prior posts on quiet zones are here and here.
 
UPDATE: Additional information has been added since the original post.