QUIET ZONES
On April
13, 2004, the Richmond City Council unanimously passed Resolution 62-04
directing the city manager and city attorney to initiate an application for
a Quiet Zone throughout the City of Richmond.
On January 25, 2005, Assistant City Attorney Wayne
Nishioka made a report to the City Council on progress toward establishing
Quiet Zones in Richmond pursuant to The Federal Railroad Administration
Interim Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway-Rail Grade
Crossings, which can be found at
http://www.fra.dot.gov/us/content/1318.
In short, the Federal Railroad Administration Interim
Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings
provides: “New Quiet Zones may be created if: (1) All public crossings are
equipped with flashing lights and gates; and either– (2) After adjusting for
increased risk created by silencing the train horn, the average risk at the
crossings is less than the national average for gated crossings where the
train horn sounds (National Significant Risk Threshold or “NSRT”); or
Safety improvements are made that reduce the risk to a
level either less than the NSRT or a level that compensates for loss of the
train horn as a warning device.”
In his report, Nishioka wrote: “The federal government
postponed finalizing its rules on Quiet Zones until April 2005.
Notwithstanding the postponement of the final rules, the staff continues to
take the steps necessary in anticipation of the implementation of Quiet
Zones in Richmond. One the rules are finalized and once staff has been able
to complete all the required prerequisite steps, the Council will be asked
to look at the policy recommendations and fiscal impacts of having Quiet
Zones.”
Nishioka recommends three Quiet Zones, North Area
(John, Griffin, Atlas and Giant), West Area (Point Richmond area) and South
Area (Marina Bay area). Nishioka has laid a good foundation, and I intend
to push for being ready to go on April 1 rather than waiting until then to
start preparing an application.
LONG TRAINS
There are
two solutions to long trains. The simpler, quicker and cheaper solution is
for BNSF to move their traffic to the Port of Oakland over Union Pacific
(UP) lines in the Richmond area instead of through south Richmond. They
already use theses lines east of Martinez. According to BNSF sources, UP is
blocking the switchover. The Federal Surface Transportation Board has some
powers that can persuade UP to cooperate. The good news is that the Richmond
City Council passed Resolution 62-04 directing the city
manager and city attorney to file a Petition for Declaratory Order with the
Surface Transportation Board requesting that the Board compel UP and BNSF to
share tracks in a way that will eliminate the passage of long, through
trains through south Richmond. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors
passed Resolution 2003-196 that is similar. The bad news is that neither
the city manager nor the city attorney has taken any action.
Resolution
62-04 also directed the city manager and city attorney
to file a Petition for Declaratory Order with the Surface Transportation
Board requesting that the Board compel UP and BNSF to share tracks in a way
that will eliminate the passage of long, through trains through south
Richmond. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors passed Resolution
2003-196 that is similar. The bad news is that neither the city manager nor
the city attorney has taken any action.
At the
February 1 City Council meeting, the Redevelopment Agency was authorized to
issue an RFP for a feasibility study to construct a grade separation in the
Marina Bay area and to further explore the “Richmond Field Station bypass”
to alleviate the frequent and lengthy train blockages.
I have
placed an item on the February 8 agenda requesting similar authority to
expand the study to the Parchester Village area. On February 15, I will
once again ask the City Council to direct the city manager and city attorney
to act on direction given in Resolution 62-04 to
file a Petition for Declaratory Order with the Surface Transportation Board.
Tom Butt
UPDATE
The Final Rule on Use of Locomotive Horns
at Highway-Rail Grade Crossings, which allows the establishment of Quiet
Zones, goes into effect tomorrow, June 24, 2005. For more information, see
TOM BUTT E-FORUM February 4, 2005,
Quiet Zones and Long Trains.
The time has come for the City of
Richmond to honor the public policy directives set by the City Council. On
April 13, 2004, in Resolution 62-04 directing the city manager and city
attorney to initiate an application for a Quiet Zone throughout the City of
Richmond and to file a Petition for Declaratory Order with the Surface
Transportation Board requesting that the Board compel UP and BNSF to share
tracks in a way that will eliminate the passage of long, through trains
through south Richmond. The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors passed
Resolution 2003-196 that is similar. Neither the city manager nor the city
attorney has taken complied with Resolution 62-04, although I know that
Assistant City Attorney Wayne Nishioka has been working on the Quiet Zone
issue for some time.
For more information on Quiet Zones, see
the FRA website and the links below:
In response to a legislative mandate, FRA
has issued a Final Rule on the Use of Locomotive Horns at Highway-Rail Grade
Crossings. This final rule, which requires that locomotive horns be sounded
as a warning to highway users at public highway-rail crossings, will take
effect on June 24, 2005. Until June 24, 2005, the sounding of locomotive
horns at public crossings will remain subject to applicable State and local
laws. The final rule provides an opportunity, not available until now, for
thousands of localities nationwide to mitigate the effects of train horn
noise by establishing new "quiet zones." The rule also details actions
communities with pre-existing "whistle bans" can take to preserve the quiet
they have become accustomed to.
What you can do:
Contact the Mayor and City Council
members and ask them to direct the city manager and city attorney to comply
with policy direction given in Resolution 62-04.
You can contact every member of the City
Council via email by cutting and pasting the email addresses below:
irma_anderson@ci.richmond.ca.us;
mlpenn@pacbell.net;
natbates@pacbell.net;
GayleMcL@sbcglobal.net;
johnemarquez@aol.com;
tom.butt@intres.com;
richard_griffin@ci.richmond.ca.us;
elirapty@aol.com;
maria_viramontes@ci.richmond.ca.us
Phone numbers and mail addresses of the
City Council are also available at
http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/government/terms.html.
Press Release
Final Rule
Record of Decision: Use of
Locomotive Horns Final Rule
Final Environmental Impact
Statement
Guidance on the Quiet Zone Creation Process
Quiet
Zone Calculator
Flow
Chart Explanatory Text
Chart
1A -- Pre-Rule Quiet Zones and Pre-Rule Quiet Zones Qualifying for Automatic
Approval
Chart
1B: Pre-Rule Quiet Zones and Pre-Rule Partial Quiet Zones Not Qualified for
Automatic Approval
Chart
2: Intermediate Quiet Zones and Intermediate Partial Quiet Zones
Chart
3: Creating a New Quiet Zone or New Partial Quiet Zone using SSMs
Chart
4A: Creating a Quiet Zone using Modified SSMs
Chart
4B: Creating a Quiet Zone using Engineering ASMs
Chart
4C: Creating a Quiet Zone using Non-Engineering ASMs
Notifications
Safety
/
Issues Update
