SAN DIEGO — Residents living in the Little Italy area of Downtown San Diego should be prepared for excessive train horn noise after its Quiet Zone was suspended by federal officials.
The Federal Railroad Administration has issued a temporary suspension of the Quiet Zone imposed in the City of San Diego near the Laurel Street and Fifth Avenue railroad crossings.
"I work from home so it's pretty frustrating when you're on a call and all of the sudden the train horn will go and you can't proceed with anything," said Lasse Hoffman, who lives in Little Italy near the tracks.
Officials familiar with the temporary suspension said the agency temporarily suspended the quiet zone after federal railroad safety specialists found a pattern of non-compliance regarding quiet zone safety regulations.
"Our podcast studio is right here next to the tracks. It's the Rich Somers Report. It's a big deal, a silent room for us to record there. To have blaring horns, it's going to effect our podcast as well," said Rich Somers, a Little Italy resident.
CBS 8 has learned that the loud train horns that disrupted residents in Downtown San Diego and Little Italy will continue until the city adequately implements the required supplemental safety measures.
"Lets get to work on how to solve it," Hoffman said.
The specific safety measures that were deemed non-compliant by federal officials near Laurel Street and Fifth Avenue are currently unknown.
" I think the city needs to do something about it. Let's make a move because at the end of the day there's about 2,000 residences right here and this is a quiet, peaceful neighborhood," Somers said.
Trains have resumed horns in the area surrounding area "to prevent avoidable grade crossing injuries and deaths," according to a federal official familiar with the suspension.
According to the Federal Railroad Administration website on Quiet Zones,
“When the rule established the requirement for routine sounding of the locomotive horn, a procedure was also established whereby localities that could meet certain safety requirements might designate as a “quiet zone” a segment of a rail line with one or more consecutive public highway-rail grade crossings. Upon satisfying the regulation’s technical requirements, locomotive horns would not be routinely sounded within this quiet zone.
The City of San Diego Communications Department sent CBS 8 the following statement Thursday evening,
"The City has been working over the past year to bring the Quiet Zone into compliance, including obtaining permits to allow work to proceed and following an original list of deficiencies that was provided by the Federal Railroad Administration. The FRA inspector conducted a site visit yesterday and identified additional items that were not in compliance.
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."
In a post on social media on Thursday afternoon, North County Transit District addressed the excessive noise being created by their trains.