The Federal Railroad Association (FRA) lifted the city of San Diego's quiet zone designations in the downtown and Little Italy areas because of safety concerns.
Some downtown dwellers and workers just can’t get any peace and quiet. Downtowners counting on the quiet zone designation around railroad crossings are getting a rude awakening.
“It's been really rough. It really echoes down through these streets like that," Daniel Perry, a downtown resident, said.
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Perry is a nurse who sometimes works the overnight shift.
“It makes it very hard, especially for me, where I work at night in the hospital, to sleep,“ Perry said.
Cache Heverly works in the building a block west of the Beech Street and Kettner Boulevard crossing in downtown.
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“It's really loud. They don’t have to hold it. It’s the holding that gets like, 'Oh my God,'” Heverly said.
The FRA tells NBC 7 that the railroad crossings are not unsafe but some of them in the downtown and Little Italy areas are not with guidelines either.
An FRA spokesperson said that local governments are required to add safety measures in quiet zones because the trains aren’t blowing their horns and that San Diego for the last year has failed to do so.
In an emailed statement to NBC 7, the FRA wrote, in part, "Not every public crossing within the quiet zone had the required supplementary safety measures. Not all crossings were in compliance with the requirements on highway-rail grade crossings. Paperwork documenting grade crossing inventories and safety devices was incomplete."
“I would have thought with the infrastructure they have in place here they should have had this all figured out,“ Perry said.
In part of a statement released by Nicole Darling, the city’s director of communications, she wrote, “Today the City was in contact with the Federal Railroad Administration and is currently waiting for a detailed report of the deficiencies identified by the Federal Railroad Administration yesterday. We stand ready to resolve the identified deficiencies and restore the Quiet Zone as soon as possible.”
As soon as possible could not be soon enough for most who make a living or are living in the now not-so-quiet zones.
The FRA says the temporary suspension of the quiet zones will end once the city has adequately implemented the required safety measures and shows proof the work has been done.
