Council muzzles train horns

BURBANK — The City Council unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday that would allow the city to create a quiet zone along a local railroad to lessen train noise in the surrounding neighborhood.

By establishing such a zone, trains passing though the Buena Vista Street at-grade crossing, near San Fernando Boulevard, would be required to refrain from honking through a stretch of track at least half a mile long, and the crossings would be outfitted with safety improvements, alerting motorists that train horns will no longer be routinely sounded, city officials said.

While no complaints have been received in the residential area near the crossing, the neighborhood was prone to “noticeable sound,” Public Works Manager Bonnie Teaford said.

The $700,000 project, which would take about a year to complete, will include flashing lights, railroad protection gates and signs warning of the absence of locomotive horns, Teaford said.

This is the first such quiet zone in Burbank, though its passage is rooted in a two-year political journey. The City Council in 2005 directed city staffers to investigate the feasibility of establishing a railroad quiet zone through Burbank.

In February 2006, the council set aside $680,000 from Redevelopment Agency funds to complete improvements.

The resolution does not bind the city to creating a zone.

“Should anyone — the council or residents — have any complaints, this whole process can be terminated,” city traffic engineer Ken Johnson said. “Anyone can say, I don’t want it.”

The quiet zone would coincide with other improvements to the area. Officials are planning to develop a grade crossing — or overpass — at the intersection in the next couple of years, Johnson said.

A grade crossing would render the need for a quiet zone moot, Johnson said. With no cars passing at street level — the same level as trains — trains would not need to honk as a warning.

“The quiet zone will probably be around for about a year and a half because of the grade improvements,” Johnson said. “But [the quiet zone] is an important improvement.”