From: Phyllis Brown
To: Council, City
Subject: Palo Alto rail crossings
Date: Monday, November 10, 2025 9:08:31 AM
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Members of the City Council,
I have read reports related to the Rail Committee's study and recommendations related to quiet zones at Palo Alto railroad crossings. I urge the council to approve the option of addding four-quadrant gates at the Charleston, Meadow and Churchill crossings. Although wayside horns would eliminate the need for trains to sound horns, many residents would still be negatively impacted by the noise of the wayside horns. The wayside horns would actually create greater noise pollution for residents who live closest to the crossings.
I urge you to pursue the option of collaborating with Caltrain on the four-quadrant option with the goal completing the installation of the four-quadrant gates more quickly.
Palo Alto residents deserve quiet zones as soon as possible while we wait for the grade- separation projects to be selected and built.
Phyllis Brown
Professor Emerita Phyllis Rugg Brown
English Department
St. Joseph Hall
Santa Clara University
500 El Camino Real
Santa Clara, CA 95053
[email protected]
From: Laura Granka
To: Council, City
Subject: Support of Four-Quadrant Gate as preferred Quiet Zone - Nov 10 @ 9:10pm Date: Sunday, November 9, 2025 11:38:05 AM
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i
Dear City Council,
This letter offers strong support on behalf of my family and neighbors for four quadrant gates as the preferred quiet zone implementation.
Train horn noise significantly impacts our quality of life I have written many times in the past about the daily disturbances of the train horn noise throughout our daily life, as someone who lives on Churchill Ave, near the Churchill crossing.
The train horn noises wake up my children, frequently leaving them tired and sleepy for school. Quiet zones would be a huge improvement for the Palo Alto community.
Please approve four quadrant gates
During your Monday Nov 10 City Council meeting please approve four-quadrant gates as the preferred quiet zone implementation. In addition to providing environmental noise improvements, they offer significant safety advantages, which is critical near our 3 Palo Alto intersections which see very heavy pedestrian, cyclist
—including thousands of high school
students daily, and vehicular traffic.
Hard NO on wayside horns
While one member of council is interested in Wayside Horns, please do not support wayside horns. I've shared many resources over the past year with City Council and Rail Committee explaining why wayside horns are an inferior solution, with frequent malfunctions, and actually produce more noise for those immediately at a crossing. They are primarily designed for remote areas with few people, and your own consultants note "some cases where wayside horns have been installed, local agencies have subsequently chosen to remove the horns." I previously shared an article (https://myedmondsnews.com/2019/08/city-still-working- to-address-wayside-horn-glitches) about a town that implemented wayside horns in their downtown area ~2018, which "can go off 15 or 20 times per train crossing". Seven years later, articles are still being written about the nuisance and noise from this town's wayside horns, including comments like: "We have lived right on the tracks about a half mile north of the bowl for over half a century and can clearly hear the newer and supposedly quieter warning siren – which is much longer and far more annoying than than the actual train whistle."
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Thank you very much for your consideration and support of four quadrant gates as a quiet zone implementation.
If you would like to spend any time at my home near the Churchill intersection to observe the noise and heavy pedestrian / cyclist traffic, please let me know, I'd be happy to have you.
Best regards,
Laura Granka
From: herb
To: Council, City; Clerk, City
Cc: Bhatia, Ripon
Subject: November 10, 2025 City Council Meeting, Agenda Item #7: Quiet Zone Implementation Date: Saturday, November 8, 2025 5:33:20 PM
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NOVEMBER 10, 2025 CITY COUNCIL MEETING
AGENDA ITEM #7: QUIET ZONE IMPLEMENTATION MEASURE
If and when four-quadrant gates are implemented at streets crossing the Caltrain tracks, there will still be noise from train horns along the Caltrain right-of-way, as discussed in the email messages forwarded below from two years ago that I had previously forwarded to you.
One of the responses I received to my request for information two years ago was that Caltrain protocols replaced horns with visual message systems when passing through stations.
However, those visual message systems are useful only to passengers waiting to board a train, but horns have another purpose, namely, to warn people at the station that they risk serious injury and possibly death if they fall, jump, or are pushed into the path of an oncoming train.
The sounding of train horns between stations and while passing through stations are determined by both: (1) FRA Regulations, Caltrain Protocols, and UPRR Protocols; and (2) the behavior of individual train operators.
I believe it would be helpful to document the extent to which train horns are used, when they are used, and by whom they are used to enable you to determine whether action is required to modify that behavior that is independent of any benefit obtained should you decide to implement four-quadrant gates to eliminate train horn noise at street crossings of Caltrain.
Establishing a system similar to a shot-spotter system should provide you the information you would need to determine what action you may need to take to reduce the noise from those other sources.
The loudness of train horns at those locations, especially when the ambient sound is low, may result in residents complaining that they still hear train horns after you implement four- quadrant gate for noise reduction.
Thank you for your consideration of these comments.
Herb Borock
From: Bhatia, Ripon <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2023 10:03 PM
You don't often get email from [email protected]. Learn why this is important To: herb <[email protected]>
Cc: City Mgr <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Caltrain Crossings Quiet Zones
Dear Mr. Borock,
With regard to your follow-up questions, we have the following information.
The UPRR protocol includes using a short horn before entering station areas. Noting that UPRR runs 4-6 freight trains along the corridor on a given day.
Train engineers' (Caltrain or UPRR) certainly have their discretion on using the horn. We understand that they can use horns if there is any safety hazard or concern along the track including stations.
We like to thank you for these questions and feedback for Quiet Zone consideration.
Sincerely,
Ripon Bhatia
From: herb <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 1:29 PM
To: Bhatia, Ripon <[email protected]>
Cc: City Mgr <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Caltrain Crossings Quiet Zones
Thank you for your prompt response.
Does Union Pacific have protocols for use of train horns by its freight trains prior to those trains entering Caltrain
stations?
If not, does that mean that each freight train engineer can decide whether to sound the freight train's horn when
approaching a Caltrain station?
From: Bhatia, Ripon <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 20, 2023 5:50 PM
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: City Mgr <[email protected]>
Subject: RE: Caltrain Crossings Quiet Zones
Dear Mr. Borock,
On behalf of the City Manager, Ed Shikada, thank you for contacting the City of Palo Alto.
We sincerely appreciate your feedback for consideration of Quiet Zone at Palo Alto Avenue.
While the Quiet Zone project is a way to reduce train horn noise near public at-grade crossings, you have certainly raised good questions regarding the regulation of sounding horns before entering the platforms and its effectiveness over the corridor.
FRA Regulations: The FRA does not require trains to use horns prior to the stations.
The FRA website, Title 49 provides information about these regulations for train horn use. The following link with information on “When the locomotive horns must be used” provides greater information. Link. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title- 49/subtitle-B/chapter-II/part-222
Caltrain Protocols: In addition to FRA requirements, we also looked into Caltrain specific protocols. Based on the Caltrain website, in 2017 Caltrain also eliminated the use of continuously sounding horns when passing through stations (Link https://www.caltrain.com/news/caltrain-reduce-horn-noise ) except where they have
pedestrian crossings. Caltrain uses visual message signs when passing through stations in Palo Alto ( Palo Alto, California Avenue, and San Antonio Stations). We are reaching out to Caltrain to verify their protocols and in finding information for Stanford Station.
We sincerely appreciate your comments on this quiet zone study at Palo Alto Avenue. Please let us know should you have any further questions or concerns. Thank You
Sincerely,
Ripon Bhatia
From: herb <[email protected]
>
Sent: Wednesday, March 15, 2023 12:51 PM
To: Council, City <[email protected]>
Cc: Clerk, City <[email protected]>; Bhatia, Ripon <[email protected]> Subject: Caltrain Crossings Quiet Zones
CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Be cautious of opening attachments and clicking on links.
Palo Alto and Menlo Park are considering establishing Quiet Zones at Caltrain at-grade crossings because federal
regulations require locomotive horns to begin sounding before entering those crossings. A community meeting is scheduled on that subject for March 23, 2023.
Do federal regulations also require locomotive horns to begin sounding before entering a Caltrain station when those
locomotives do not stop at a station, even during periods of the day when no trains are scheduled to stop at the station?
For example, when the Stanford Caltrain station is not being used, a locked fence prevents people from accessing the station platform and, therefore, there is no reason for locomotive horns to sound when approaching and passing that station during those times.
However, during the time of day when some trains stop at the University Avenue and California Avenue Caltrain stations, other trains do not stop at those stations. Are the
locomotives that do not stop at those stations during those times required to begin sounding their horns before entering those stations?
Also, during the time of day when there are no trains scheduled to stop at those stations, but the passenger platforms can be accessed, are locomotives required to begin sounding their horns before entering those stations? If so, creating a Quiet Zone at the Palo Alto Avenue/Alma Street Caltrain crosssing would not eliminate the sound of locomotives sounding their horns when entering the nearby Caltrain station.