11 Quiet Zones Installed Throughout Edmond

The City of Edmond recently installed 11 quiet zones throughout the town. The project cost about $4 million and was funded by the 2000 capital improvements sales tax.

“The quiet zone project, we’ve actually started looking into several years ago. Essentially, what it does is through enhancements to the railroad crossings to where the trains will no longer sound their horns as they go through the city,” Casey Moore, Edmond spokesman, said.

In cases of an emergency, trains can still blow their horn. Before the installation, it was sort of an Edmond tradition to hear the loud blaring sounds of a train horn throughout the day and night.

“You kind of get use to it and it kind of becomes background noise,” Aspen barista Jacob Ford said. “We would either have a ton of people either out on the porch just enjoying the atmosphere inside and we would just have horns blaring 24/7. Really, it’s about every two and a half hours there would be horns going off.”

Many of the crossings are near businesses, but Ashleigh Sochor said there’s one basically in her backyard.

Sochor sais it's a relief to not hear the horns anymore. She said she did notice things were more quiet than usual, but the biggest change she noticed was in her baby girl, Emily.

“She’s actually slept in her bed for several nights since the trains have stopped. I almost did not notice the horns not going off until we were up late wrapping presents and I was like wait I’ve not heard our train horn in hours,” Sochor said.