{"id":251559,"date":"2025-09-24T17:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251559\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:13:09","slug":"does-the-city-regulate-noise-near-rail-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/251559\/","title":{"rendered":"Does the city regulate noise near rail lines?"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the\u00a0Jacksonville Today\u00a0newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Q: <\/b>Sometime before dawn, constant beeping begins in a San Jose neighborhood near Florida East Coast<\/a> Railway\u2019s Bowden Yard.<\/p>\n

More than 20 lines of tracks lie there to load and reroute freight for travel north and south. The neighborhood also is close to Baker-Skinner Park\u2019s baseball field complex and just west of Philips Highway.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The beeping) starts every single morning between 4 and 4:30 a.m.,\u201d says\u00a0Jacksonville Today\u00a0reader Michelle N.<\/p>\n

Michelle lives on the western side of Old Kings Road, so she\u2019s not backed up to the railroad. \u201cI\u2019m a good four or five blocks away,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But where the beeping comes from, Michelle doesn\u2019t know. She wonders:<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there a noise ordinance for the constant beeping of some type of machine?\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

A:<\/b>\u00a0Anyone who wants to file a\u00a0noise complaint<\/a>\u00a0with the city must note the dates and times that the noise is happening and report it to (904) 630-CITY, or\u00a0myjax.custhelp.com<\/a>. If there is a pattern, the city will schedule a time to investigate, says City Hall spokesperson Philip Perry.<\/p>\n

Perry says railroad issues can be tricky for the city to investigate because the Interstate Commerce Act and the Interstate Commission Termination Act preempt local ordinances.<\/p>\n

The noise also could be some kind of safety device, which is exempt from Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board rules.<\/p>\n

Local rules do prohibit trains from blowing horns or whistles while operating in switching or marshaling areas when information can be conveyed by radio, telephones and other means, he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it is a horn or whistle, and this is happening in the switchyard, the city can potentially investigate,\u201d Perry says.<\/p>\n

Part of the FEC Bowden Yard, off Philips Highway just south of Butler Boulevard. | Google (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n

In Michelle\u2019s case, the beeping could be a backup alarm on some kind of vehicle that is moved every morning at the rail yard. Or it might be coming from trucks at the countless Philips Highway businesses that back up to the rail lines.<\/p>\n

There also are multiple FEC rail lines between Michelle\u2019s neighborhood and Philips Highway, and support buildings, rail yards and container truck parking areas.<\/p>\n

Jacksonville Today\u00a0asked FEC officials repeatedly about a possible source of the beeping. We got no response. Could it be a passing train?<\/p>\n

According to the\u00a0Federal Railroad Administration<\/a>, locomotive engineers must sound train horns at least 25 seconds before reaching a public highway crossing.<\/p>\n

Train horns must follow a standardized pattern: two long blasts, one short blast, then another long blast. This pattern should be repeated or prolonged until the lead locomotive or cab car occupies the crossing.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":251560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[52136,5229,3188,723,7310,52137,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-251559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-askjaxtdy","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-together-4-jax","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115260398378167927","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}