MELBOURNE, Fla. – Melbourne’s mayor wants Brightline conductors to lay off the train horns during overnight hours.
“They’re blowing their horn, just constantly,” Mayor Paul Alfrey said, reciting complaints the city is receiving from people who live close to the tracks.
Robert Gudger has lived on Wisteria Drive with his backyard bordering the railroad tracks for 50 years.
“Excessive horn blowing just because they’ve got that button in their hand, that’s bull crap,” Gudger said.
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After starting service with five or six trains running between Orlando and Miami, Gudger said he now hears more than 30 trains each day pass his house.
“It wakes me up and they not only blow at the crossing,” he said. “If their friends are working out here on the line, they beep at them just to say hi. How stupid is that, really?”
Gudger’s neighbor, Garrett Pomichter, wasn’t as bothered.
“You know, we knew we’re moving in next to train tracks so it was just part of the decision-making process,” Pomichter said.
As a safety warning, conductors are required to sound the horn at every crossing, no matter the time, but that would change if the Federal Railroad Administration designates a quiet zone.
The mayor said it could mean no horn-blowing at the city’s 18 crossings between 10 or 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
“In a case where there’s no emergency, absolutely,” Alfred said.
The mayor said the process could take up to a year.
One of the first steps is a training workshop on establishing quiet zones scheduled for Thursday.
Brightline announced on Monday that it had increased its train service between Orlando and Miami to 32 trains daily. Brightline opened its Orlando station in September.
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