RTD can install so-called “quiet crossings” on its West Corridor light-rail line, allowing train operations without loud bells and horns to warn motorists, but the agency will need low-decibel warnings for pedestrians when safety gates come down, according to a judge’s ruling.
Because so much of the 12-mile West line traverses residential areas, community groups along the route had asked the Regional Transportation District to dampen horn and warning-bell sounds at 11 crossings. The $710 million rail line is scheduled to open in two years.
With quiet crossings, rail agencies typically rely on quad gates or dual gates with raised medians to keep motorists from getting on the tracks in front of a train. Using these safety measures, transit districts can eliminate audible warnings to motorists, such as the horns train operators usually sound when crossing a street.
But when RTD petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission for quiet crossings on the West line, members of metro Denver’s blind community said the total elimination of audible warnings would endanger pedestrians.
In a 47-page ruling issued late Friday, PUC Administrative Law Judge Keith Kirchubel agreed and approved RTD’s request for quiet crossings with the qualifier that lower-decibel warning bells be installed at the intersections.
Kirchubel found that RTD’s original request to silence warning bells and train horns was “inadequate to warn blind and child pedestrians of an approaching train.”
“The alternative audible pedestrian-warning system demonstrated by RTD is an effective and viable safety precaution that does not unreasonably impact the quiet character of the adjacent neighborhoods,” he wrote.
The pact RTD worked out with local community groups and representatives of the blind community — and approved by Kirchubel — calls for the warning bells for pedestrians to adjust in real time and sound at 5 decibels above the existing ambient-noise level at each location.
Kirchubel said pre-established noise limits on the pedestrian safety bells would be revisited if officials later determine that the sound levels are too low to provide adequate warning.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
