Pearland to silence train horns in Old Townsite

“It was almost a continuous horn-blowing as [trains] go through town because the three crossings are about 1,000 feet apart,” Jones said. “When you’ve got that many trains going through town and every one of them [is] blowing their horn, it gets old pretty quick.”

The Federal Railroad Administration—the agency that establishes and enforces railroad regulations—approves quiet zones in areas that are at or below its Nationwide Significant Risk Threshold. Pearland has supplemental safety measures at each of the three railroad crossings that made them eligible for a quiet zone.

The city installed the safety measures, which include unmountable medians, curbs and flashing lights, around 2013. The widening of Hwy. 35 delayed the establishment of the quiet zone because of the installation of new traffic signals at the FM 518 intersection.

“All of these [supplemental safety measures] are designed to ‘channelize’ the traffic, or trap them behind the gate so they can’t go around it when it’s down,” Jones said.

Jones said several businesses back up to the railroad tracks. Coupled with recent population growth, the increase in activity in the area prompted the need for the quiet zone.

“Whereas it didn’t used to be a problem for people, I think with [the] influx of new folks in town and more businesses and general clatter around town, people didn’t really need the added noise of trains blowing their horns,” Jones said.