Mike Uhren with a Commentary: All Aboard Florida, ‘quiet zones’ help Palm Beach, Broward

Nick Uhren is the Executive Director of the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization. He writes about 'quiet zones' and the work that's being done along the FEC corridor in Palm Beach and our neighbor to the south, Broward County. Here's an excerpt:

     The Broward County and Palm Beach County Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) have been working together to ensure the residents, businesses and visitors along the Florida East Coast (FEC) railroad corridor can get some well-deserved quiet. Today, for safety reasons and per federal law, the trains operating in the FEC corridor must blow their horns at virtually every grade crossing. By law, a train horn must be between 96 and 110 decibels, which is as loud as a rock concert.
     But, there is another way to ensure safety without having to sound the horns. Quiet is coming as the MPOs are working with our municipal and county partners to move forward with a Quiet Zone designation. To help us establish this Quiet Zone the MPOs have set aside a small portion of our federal funding to build additional infrastructure (new medians and crossing gates). The additional infrastructure is needed to replace the safety of the train horns and to qualify for the Federal Rail Administration Quiet Zone designation.