Orange County Grand Jury
• 2006-2007
• Agency Response
City of Anaheim*
⚠️ Translation Notice: This content has been automatically translated. The original English text is the official version. Translation may contain errors.
⚠️ Este contenido ha sido traducido automáticamente. El texto original en inglés es la versión oficial. La traducción puede contener errores.
Findings and Recommendations 2 findings
F2
Impacted cities are strongly concerned about noise from OCTA/Metrolink train horns at railroad crossings. The cost of totally eliminating train horns county- wide through quiet zone corridor treatments could be in the range of $50-$60 million. The respondent agrees with the finding. In Anaheim, there are currently fourteen at-grade crossings along the two rail subdivisions that OCTA owns. Ten of the at-grade crossings are located along the Orange Subdivision/LOSSAN rail line that serves our Angel Stadium rail station, and four are along the Olive Subdivision that serves our Anaheim Canyon rail station. Quiet Zone improvements are planned at Broadway, Santa Ana Street, South Street and Vermont Avenue grade crossings of the Orange Subdivision, and potentially at the Tustin Avenue grade crossing of the Olive Subdivision. In addition, the increased train noise may result in quiet zone designations at the Orange Subdivision crossings with North, Sycamore and Cypress streets. OCTA proposes to have the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) act as it's agent to implement 1) supplemental safety measures at up to 64 crossings in Orange County, and 2) quiet zones where they have been requested by cities. The City of Anaheim desires to proceed at an accelerated schedule with quiet zone improvements planned at Broadway, Santa Ana Street, South Street and Vermont Avenue grade crossings of the Orange Subdivision, and potentially at the Tustin Avenue grade crossing of the Olive Subdivision, and be reimbursed by OCTA. South Anaheim Boulevard, Anaheim, California 92805 (714) 765-5247 • FAX (714) 765-5164 • www.anaheim.net
No recommendations for this finding
F3
It is unclear how the burden of cost for upgraded crossings will be shared by the OCTA and impacted cities. The respondent agrees with the finding. The City has committed funding to provide a 12% match towards the cost to construct Supplemental Safety Measures and other quiet zone improvements that might be needed. However, an ongoing funding source needs to be identified to maintain the additional infrastructure in OCTA rights-of-way. In addition, the issue of Metrolink indemnification for not requiring train horns through at-grade crossings that have had safety conditions improved must be resolved so as to not unduly burden local agencies who are willing to fund these improvements.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3
The burden of construction and inspection costs for these grade crossing treatments needs to be shared by the OCTA and impacted cities according to an agreed formula. The recommendation requires further analysis. The scope of further analysis needs to consider application of the 88% OCTA/12% City funding match for supplemental safety measures construction, permitting and inspection. The 88% OCTA/12% City funding match also needs to be considered for quiet zone establishment. Most important, an ongoing funding plan must be identified to address the issue of 1) indemnification of Metrolink for not requiring train horns through at-grade crossings that have had safety conditions improved; and 2) ongoing maintenance of improvements within the rail rights-of-way. OCTA has begun this process and intends to recommend actions at an August, 2007 OCTA Board meeting. Since Curt Pringle Mayor . . . . . * .
* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.