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.
