Railroad Crossing Safety: Whistle Bans

Any doubt that train whistles enhance railroad crossing safety was removed in the early 1990s, when the Federal Railway Administration (FRA) issued an emergency ruling that trains passing through Florida must blow their whistles when nearing public crossings.  Known as Emergency Order 15, it overrode laws then in existence in seven counties and 12 cities in the Sunshine State, which prohibited train whistles after dark.  After it was implemented, the nighttime accident rate was reduced by 68%, in line with what it had been prior to the implementation of the bans.

Despite this fact, Emergency Order 15 wasn’t without its critics, such as groups that seek to reduce noise pollution.  In response to the controversy, the FRA conducted a nationwide study to gauge the role that whistles play in accident prevention.  The results showed that the signals lower railroad crossing accidents by 84% nationwide.  It was clear that train whistles play a vital role in enhancing railroad crossing safety.

To resolve the dispute, the FRA currently mandates the use of train whistles 24 hours a day at public crossing spots.  However, the ruling also allows communities to ban the use of the whistles, provided that certain supplementary safety measures (SSMs) are put in place.

Getting approval for these bans involves a long and complex procedure. The steps to achieving it include:

1. Identifying the specific areas that are to be designated as whistle-free.
2. Determining whether any of those areas can be automatically granted approval, under grandfathering provisions established by the FRA.
3. Ensuring that each public crossing in the area includes the SSMs required by the FRA.
4. Establishing that the SSMs in place sufficiently compensate for the loss of safety incurred by banning train whistles.
5. If any private roads cross the railroad corridors, additional studies must be conducted.  If the team that performs the study recommends SSMs at the crossings, then those must be put in place before the application for a local train whistle ban can proceed to the next step.

Full information on Emergency Order 15 and the actions that followed can be found online here.