I've noticed a big difference this week with the quiet zone.

Great job, Nerissa! You're doing yeoman's work.

Way to go Atherton!! Palo Alto should be next.

As a matter of fact, if High Speed Rail is implemented on the peninsula, all at-grade crossings will get quad gates, which will be the first step in qualifying the entire peninsula as a quite zone. Imagine that!!

Atherton, perhaps you really do want to support High Speed Rail? :)

The article incorrectly and confusingly uses the word "station" numerous times when clearly "crossing" is meant.

Example #1: "... approaching the STATION 81 percent of the time"

Example #2: "... the two STATIONS are 0.3 miles apart ..." (no 2 stations are that close)

Example #3: "... the nearest STATION is at Chestnut Street in Redwood City" (no station there, only a crossing)

The two paragraphs discussing northbound and southbound trains are directionally confused, here's how those two paragraphs make any sense (corrections CAPITALIZED):

For SOUTHbound trains heading in the San JOSE direction, she makes the observation visually. "There should be no train blast after the train leaves the Watkins crossing," she said." "At Fair Oaks, you can see the Watkins crossing gates clearly. I can see exactly where the train leaves the Watkins crossing."

As for NORTHbound trains, the fact that the nearest station is NEAR BROADWAY in Redwood City, makes those observations easy, she said. "There should be no train horn blasts before or through the Fair Oaks Crossing. They should only be starting to sound in advance of Watkins," she said. Ms. Dexter looked on GoogleEarth to figure out the .25 mile distance from Watkins and can see the spot on the tracks where train horn blasts can restart, she said.


Lastly, Ms. Dexter should be recording train numbers (vertical signs with smaller digits near the engineer's side window), which are more important identifying information for Caltrain to identify the engineer at the controls than locomotive numbers. In the photo accompanying the online article (above), the train number is 78 (small vertical number), while the locomotive number is 907 (larger number).

Reality check, thank you for pointing out the mistake about stations vs. crossings. That's been fixed.
The directions, however are correct. Northbound trains, heading toward San Francisco, pass through the Watkins crossing before reaching the Fair Oaks Crossing, and shouldn't be blasting horns after passing the Watkins crossing gates. They shouldn't blast them again until nearing Chestnut Street.

Southbound trains, heading toward San Jose, pass through the Chestnut crossing before reaching Fair Oaks and shouldn't be blaring horns anywhere past that crossing, which is 1.53 miles away. They can, however, sound their horn again .25 miles before the Watkins crossing, which is not far from Fair Oaks.

Could Ms Dexter perhaps share her contact details? I live behind the Menlo Park Caltrain station and would love to learn how we can build on her work to expand the quiet zone into Menlo Park.

Quite frankly, i have never understood why all these trains need to make the ridiculous amount of noise from 5am to 1am (next day) when there are already enough safety measures in place to prevent anyone with a will to live from getting under a train.

I quote here from a May 4, 2005 email sent to a lengthy Menlo Park mailing list:

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"We do not need to be negative. It's positive. We are demanding traffic safety and mitigating train horn noise with Quiet Zones. Pure and simple!

I believe that Four-Quadrant crossing gates at the intersections will meet federal requirements. I understand that they cost about $250K for each crossing. (Grade Seps. cost at least $25 million.) In any case, the City of Menlo Park should be doing this homework and getting the facts.

We can join Atherton and create Quiet Zones in our two cities. Maybe also Palo Alto. The Federal Railroad Administration tells every community the criteria for Quiet Zones. It's on their web site.

<Web Link Click on "Train Horn Rules"

How can any citizen in Menlo Park be against the elimination of train horn noise and against greater safety at the rail-crossing intersections? They can't!"
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By 2005, I had already been bombarding Menlo Park Administration and the City Council with information about Quiet Zones for several years. When the High-Speed Rail threat came along, I gave up fighting for Quiet Zones to do homework on HSR.

Bottom line? I failed. We didn't get any forward movement on Quiet Zones from the City Council or the Administration. It's certainly worth a try again. The laws are in our favor. The City ought to support this effort.

Oh, and one more thing. Atherton has always been on the cutting edge of resisting Caltrain corridor intrusiveness and development. They are not against the commuter train; they oppose expansion that manifests corridor impact on not just the immediate residential areas, but on the entire town. They now lead in the efforts to obtain Quiet Zones.

Why is Menlo Park not in league with them? (Rhetorical question!) Although Palo Alto has been far more active than Menlo Park regarding Caltrain corridor issues, they could also collaborate with Atherton and Menlo Park in creating the traffic management elements on the street crossings that make Quiet Zones feasible.

Rather than printing Ms. Dexter's contact information, I suggest sending me an email at bwood@almanacnews.com and I will forward to Ms. Dexter. She promises to respond. Alternatively you can contact the town of Atherton and I am sure they will be happy to connect you with her.

Engineers are required by Caltrain rule to sound the horn when passing thru station platforms, including the Atherton platform which is located directly south of Fair Oaks. She is ignorant to what is and what is not a violation.

Ms. Wood: thanks for the clarification. I had swapped the locations of Fair Oaks and Watkins. Apologies. I should've consulted a map before making that comment.

CJ: would you please post a link to (or quote) the wording of the Caltrain rule you say requires sounding the horn when passing through stations?

They don't sound their horn when they pass through the elevated stations.

"They don't sound their horn when they pass through the elevated stations."

I'm occasionally on the Belmont and San Bruno Caltrain platforms. Trains that don't stop (ie the Bullet trains) blow their horn both before they enter the station and while in the station, from my experience.

I'm quite certain blowing the horn before entering a station is a FRA regulation, but searching their website for proof is challenging.



I suspect that anyone arguing that Caltrain shouldn't blow the horn before going through a station is going to lose that argument. However, what is not clear is whether the Atherton location requires this regulation be applied: Mon-Fri it's an INACTIVE train station.


In my opinion, the FRA regulation for sounding the horn before passing through a station should not apply to inactive train stations like Atherton's. That said, if the FRA regulations don't make a distinction between an active and inactive station, Atherton's quiet zone may end up in name only.

I can't believe what I am reading here. [part removed.] Newsflash; IF YOU DON"T LIKE THE NOISE FROM THE TRAINS, DON'T LIVE NEAR THE TRACKS!

The trains have been coming through here since the line was built in 1864. The trains, both Caltrain passenger and Union Pacific freight, provide a HUGE service to our communities by removing cars and trucks from our already over-crowded roads. I have lived here my entire life and the sound from the trains don't bother me, but maybe that's just because I actually have purposeful things to focus my energy on.


[Portion removed; keep it civil.]

@Dr. Klaus Hergesheimer

The trains have been around since the mid-1800s, but the federal train horn requirements at grade crossings only came into effect about a decade ago. Those same federal rules also allow communities to establish quiet zones, which is what Atherton is trying to do.

Atherton fully supports passenger and freight service along the rail corridor. It's not trying to stop service. Rather, it is finding ways to harmonize coexistence with its neighbors.