PROGRESS ON OCEANSIDE QUIET ZONE PROJECT

Progress on Oceanside Quiet Zone Project

4/9/2019

The City of Oceanside Quiet Zone project installs new pedestrian crossing gates at five road crossings: Cassidy Street, Oceanside Boulevard, Wisconsin Street, Mission Avenue, and Surfrider Way. The gates and railings protect people from approaching trains and safely guide them across the railroad tracks. The upgrades qualify Oceanside for a railroad Quiet Zone on its coastal rail corridor. In a Quiet Zone, engineers are no longer required to sound a train horn at each crossing.

The pace of the Quiet Zone construction is accelerating towards completion in May. Regularly scheduled trains on the Oceanside-to-San Diego corridor are canceled the weekend of April 13 -14 due to unrelated track work. Oceanside’s Quiet Zone contractor will be working nonstop to finish as much construction as possible while the trains are not running.

The new pedestrian crossing gates and other parts of the railroad signal system need to be tested outside of regular passenger train service. This requires a “test train” to operate more or less continuously through Oceanside beginning at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, April 14, and ending at midnight. Because the Quiet Zone is not yet in effect, train horns will be sounding throughout the day each time a train approaches a road crossing.

When the construction is finished in May, a period of inspection by rail agencies begins. The Oceanside Quiet Zone goes into effect after the railroad safety improvements achieve final approval. The target date for train horns to stop is the end of June.

Information about the upcoming work and Oceanside’s Quiet Zone project obtained from Gary Kellison at (760) 435-5112.

13 Comments

Barbara

9/23/2019 05:56:38 pm

We at NCV have been waiting for this. The horn blowing is worse than ever. Nerve racking. Please stop the HORNS!

Eric

10/16/2019 08:21:11 pm

Are the engineers blowing the horns longer deliberately

Jay

10/22/2019 09:29:16 am

I have noticed Coaster trains are really short blasts, but freight trains go the full 20 seconds, which is pretty crazy at 2 in the morning.

10/22/2019 09:27:48 am

It would be great if we could have regular updates on this. I think a lot of us are looking forward to being able to enjoy living in our beautiful city.

Blake

11/4/2019 06:37:41 pm

I have left Gary Kellison multiple messages regarding this issue. The last I heard from him,October/November was the expected timeline. But I have not heard from him since August.

Gary, what is the status on this?

Ellen M.

11/7/2019 12:32:04 pm

Gary has retired and there is a new project manager for this. His name is David and can be reached at 760-435-3065. I heard he is going to council in the middle of December to get the additional funding (160k?) to finish some loose ends and re-submit to the railroad agencies for approval. March completion is the date I heard. We need to go to council meetings and make sure this happens!!

11/7/2019 12:35:21 pm

Thank you so much Ellen!! Here is the link to the Engineering site at the City as well (has not been updated for months!)
https://www.ci.oceanside.ca.us/gov/dev/eng/qzone.asp

Please email/call them if you have time and let them know this is still important to thousands of people.

Marquis A.

12/10/2019 01:02:46 pm

Does anyone have an update on this?

Dior

12/22/2019 10:20:14 pm

It’s pathetic that in December 2019 trains sound extremely loud horns day and night. Aircraft have stopped flying for many years now to cut noise pollution.
Who the hell is out at 2am, 3am, 4am, 5am that needs to be warned?
It’s not passenger trains during the night either.
I’m a tourist who will never be back and I’ll make it known that your holiday will be wrecked by uncaring noise polluters.
I booked a place here for a month. The owners know about the train noise so shame on them for not maki g it obvious. I didn’t know about it or expected that my sleep would be disrupted nightly. I thought it was just a day time nuisance!
All night long and the government is allowing it. Shame on them. Shame on those who toot the horns. Shame on those who make it lawful.
WE ARE ALL ENTITLED TO QIUET HOURS AND WERE ENTITLED TO SLEEP.

4/8/2020 02:35:40 pm

What is the latest estimate on implementing the Quiet Zone? Just moved to a house on N Pacific—it is ridiculous.

5/24/2020 01:08:19 pm

I've tried calling Oceanside City, Engineers office and Project manager several times the last month. I have not been able to get an update. Only two rumors, both of which were disturbing. I'm asking others to call as well. We NEED this quiet zone as promised and the delays and lack of information are unacceptable.

David

7/1/2020 11:28:56 am

Okay it’s July which is your timeline for no horns. Please update.

SARAH BROWN

10/14/2020 08:16:13 pm

I would like to get information as to why this Quiet Zone has not put into action with no updates considering the Quiet Zone was supposed to go into effect last year?? I find that quite disturbing, unprofessional, and absolutely ridiculous that they are blowing there horns not only during the day but also during the night, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am...I have never seen anything like this in my life, This is horrifying that the government is not communicating on such an important part of quality of life and respect for home owners is not happening? What in the world is going on and why would this Quiet Zone not happen in a timely manner??

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