ORLANDO, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35 ORLANDO) -
The City of Orlando is looking for a way to reduce noisecaused by train horns when SunRail begins operation in 2014, but they wantsomeone else to pay for it. It's not only SunRail that will cause a problem atthe city's 30 train and street intersections. Mayor Buddy Dyer says for yearspeople have talked about the horns from Amtrak and freight trains that run atnight.
"As we're interacting more in downtown and havingmore residential closer to our core, we would prefer not having train whistlesall night long."
What is a quiet zone? F.J. Flynn with the city'sTransportation Division says, along with extra fencing, it is basically backupsystems for intersections to prevent cars from being able to go around railroadcrossing arms when they are down.
"Usually pedestrian crossinggates at high pedestrian intersections," he said. "But also at vehicular intersections, orcrossing, we go from a two-arm set up to a four-arm setup."
As in most cases, the problem for the city is where toget the money to add the additional arms. Mayor Dyer and the Council'sresolution says state or federal dollars should foot the bill.
"Winter Park did get some resources, a state grantto do the quiet zones, and we're looking for some resources."
The project could end up costing millions. FloridaHospital spent one million dollars making the area around where it's stationwill be a quiet zone.
