Atherton, Caltrain squabble over train horns

"Caltrain also has an "operating rule" that requires train horns to sound while passing through train stations, she said."

Excuse me. An "operating rule" does not trump FRA regulations. Your personal policy is irrelevant to federal regulations.


"Federal Railroad Administration regulations do say that if state laws require a train horn to sound at pedestrian crossings, then they may do so even in a quiet zone"

Interesting. Does anyone have a reference to the FRA Regulation in question? (Not questioning it's existence, but would like to read it myself).


"what Caltrain, and the state Public Utility Commission, calls pedestrian crossings in the Atherton station are not actually pedestrian crossings. The station does have spots in which pedestrians cross the southbound tracks in order to board a northbound train, but pedestrians are only to cross once the northbound train is stopped in the station."

Wait...so Caltrain is saying that because Caltrain has procrastinated on replacing the holdout stations (which they previously had funding for, by the way), the community must suffer the consequences of Caltrain inaction.

What a terrible look for Caltrain.

Here is a link Web Link to the text of the federal law on the quiet zones. The part specifically referencing pedestrian crossings is 222.27 .

Dear Atherton

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

One question: Will the Town of Atherton and its residents take full responsibility the next time someone gets injured or, worse yet, dies because the horn didn't sound or will you blame it on the poor conductor who was bullied into not sounding that horn because it disturbed you?

Gimme a break. If you wanted quiet you should have grabbed one of multiple opportunities to raise the tracks and you would have had decades of quiet.

All the horns in the world won't prevent suicides, which are >90% of fatalities along Caltrain tracks.

1) According to the FRA, rail crossings with SSMs (quad gates, for example) are safer than crossings without SSMs (Ravenswood had no SSMs 18 months ago).

2) Caltrain operators are still fully empowered to sound the horn if there is an emergency (a car or person on the track).

3) Caltrain sounded its horn on Feb 23, 2015 at the Ravenswood crossing. Jahyun Jennifer Koo and her vehicle were still struck and killed.

4) One question: Has the City of Menlo Park and its residents taken full responsibility for the death of Jahyun Jennifer Koo on Feb 23, 2015?

I find it odd that the Caltrain says their operating rule requires trains to sound their horns through a station, yet they don't do this every time they pass through a station. Are they disregarding their own safety rules or just finding some excuse to ignore the law?

There's an easy way to get a definitive answer whose interpretation is correct. Atherton should report quiet zone violations to the FRA. If the FRA fines Caltrain, then Atherton is correct.

Based on Caltrain's actual behavior, which is partial compliance, my guess is that even Caltrain thinks Atherton has the correct interpretation. Caltrain just hasn't ingrained into their engineers to adhere to quiet zone rules.

[Post removed; criticism is welcome, but not disrespect.]