Trains fall silent

Published 10:16 pm Thursday, March 3, 2016

Olde Mill Creek neighbors Brooke Schaab, left, and Pam and Jim Gish say their neighborhood is more pleasant since the “quiet zone” was implemented in October 2014.

Olde Mill Creek neighbors Brooke Schaab, left, and Pam and Jim Gish say their neighborhood is more pleasant since the “quiet zone” was implemented in October 2014.

The trains have fallen silent — or at least quiet — around Suffolk Meadows.

Locomotives passing through the North Suffolk community stopped sounding their horns at the crossing of Nansemond Parkway in January, when the city’s second “quiet zone” was implemented, said Eric Nielsen Jr., the city’s public works director.

A “quiet zone” is a rail line that is at least a half-mile long, where locomotive horns are not routinely blown when trains approach public crossings, according to the Federal Railroad Administration. In 2005, Congress passed laws requiring all locomotive horns to be sounded at public crossings, with the exception of the quiet zones.

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After years of hearing trains blasting their horns when they rumbled by his North Suffolk home, Baron Boulevard resident Fred Harrison said it took a few days to get used to the change.

The train whistle was particularly disruptive at night, when trains would rumble through the Suffolk Meadows community without any set schedule, Harrison said.

“The quiet zones are a huge difference. I’m so glad the noise has stopped,” said Harrison. “When those trains would blow by, some of those drivers would lay just lay on the horn.

“It was hard when they came through at night … because when they would blast through at 1 a.m., you couldn’t just go back to sleep,” he said. “You were awake for a while.”

Suffolk Meadows is the city’s second quiet zone, Nielsen said. The first was instituted at the crossing on Olde Mill Creek Road, off Wilroy Road, in October 2014.

Suffolk City Council made “quiet zones” a priority in 2012, with a focus on the Suffolk Meadows and Olde Mill Creek communities, said Nielsen. The city budgeted $150,000 in its budget for two projects, he said.

There aren’t any other quiet zones in the works right now, he added.

Although there is capital funding set aside for rail crossing improvements in the current budget, none of it is for quiet zones, Nielsen said.

The quiet zone has made a dramatic improvement in the quality of life for Olde Mill Creek residents, said Brooke Schaab, who spearheaded efforts to get a quiet zone designation.

“The noise was horrible — sounded like a foghorn sounding in your ear,” said Schaab. “I didn’t realize how exhausted I was until my sleep was no longer being disrupted every night.”

“The first time I slept through the night, it was like I had been on a month’s vacation,” she said. “The city of Suffolk needs to make this a priority.”

Schaab thinks the city should have quiet zones at every rail crossing near houses. Studies have shown that a noisy environment and lack of sleep can result in learning delays in children, she said.