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- The Federal Railroad Administration reinstated a "quiet zone" for train horn use between Provo and Salt Lake City.
- The reinstatement follows safe inspections of all crossings in the zone.
- Public comments are sought on a waiver for the northern Utah quiet zone section, which remains suspended.
SALT LAKE CITY — The great train horn saga of 2024 is coming to an end at the start of 2025.
Federal Railroad Administration officials reinstated the "quiet zone" between Provo and Salt Lake City after all the crossings in the zone passed through a safe inspection this week, Lehi officials announced Friday afternoon.
"(The agency) will be officially notifying rail users to update their systems and crews to stop blowing their horns within seven days," city officials wrote in an update on social media.
The final crossing involved a private driveway by 1700 South in Salt Lake City, which was fixed last month. A second quiet zone, beginning at the 200 South crossing in Salt Lake City up 2700 North in Pleasant View, remains suspended, pending a waiver that two cities in the zone submitted to federal railroad officials.
Friday's update comes months after the administration lifted its two zones from Ogden through Provo at the end of September, citing issues with multiple crossings. Quiet zones are areas where railroad crossings are safe enough for operators to pass through without using a horn unless they believe there's an immediate threat on the tracks.
Lehi oversees a section between Provo and Salt Lake City, while Woods Cross oversees a section from Salt Lake City to Ogden. Both cities were told about issues with multiple crossings earlier in 2024; multiple cities reported that they were working to correct those issues when the zones were abruptly suspended at the end of September.
The suspension meant all commuter and freight trains were required to sound their horns at every crossing in both zones. Scott Murff, of Lehi, is one of several residents who said it caused sleep issues because train operators would sound their horns at all hours of the day and night.
He told KSL.com on Friday that he was "relieved" when he got a text message that the zone had been reinstated. Since then, he and his neighbors have celebrated the news.
"My phone has been buzzing from neighbors talking about it and just expressing ... relief and also just excitement that this is coming to an end," he said, adding he's appreciative of the cities that worked "really hard" to get the zone reinstated.
Murff's experience ultimately inspired him to create an online petition seeking changes to the quiet zone process. He also created a new organization over it, which has connected him with state and federal officials, as well as other cities dealing with quiet zone issues.
Through that work he found, using Census Bureau data, that more than 30,000 people lived within 1,000 feet of the region's quiet zone crossings. While he's relieved that the zone he lives in has been reinstated, he added that "the work is just beginning" for Utah's other zone.
Update to northern Utah's zone
It's still unclear when the Salt Lake City to Ogden section will be reinstated, but Salt Lake City officials posted a link to a joint waiver that it and North Salt Lake sent the Federal Railroad Administration earlier on Friday. It seeks a faster resolution to crossings that have held up the northern Utah section and must be approved by the federal agency before the zone is reinstated, which is still likely weeks away.
Salt Lake City leaders voted last month to authorize an emergency closure of a crossing on 1000 West to help speed the process up, finding it would be faster to close the road and repair the crossing than wait to repair it.
The waiver is currently in a public comment period that ends on Jan. 21 before the federal agency makes a final decision.
Meanwhile, Murff said he still plans to continue pushing for changes to amend the quiet zone rules. That way, residents might not be the ones who deal with the noise when there are issues between federal and local leaders.
"There's honestly a market need here," he said. "This hasn't existed before; the law's only 20 years old. It's only recently where the suspensions have started happening, so there just hasn't been a good solution to this. I'm hoping that that's what I can bring."
