LEWISVILLE - While new "quiet zones" at several Lewisville intersections are designed to reduce the sound from the Denton County Transportation Authority's A-trains, some business owners at one crossing say they are actually louder than the train horns.
Merchants at the businesses at Main and Railroad streets said they have had to endure loud blasts from wayside horns, which are fixed on top of the poles to simulate train horns at a lower decibel level.
It wasn't until this week that the wayside horns began sounding off to replace the train horns. Now, they claim the loudness of the new fixed horns are even worse.
“You feel it," said Scott Higginbotham, who owns Scott’s Car Care located about 130 feet from the horns. "You feel your chest vibrate. You feel your head vibrate. You feel it five minutes after it leaves; it's still there."
The automated horns blast 95 decibels of sound. One train caused the wayside horn to blast 10 times from three to five seconds. Higginbotham said it's making it difficult to do business.
"If you're on the telephone with a customer, you might as well hang up and call them back because you absolutely can't hear anybody on the phone," he said. "They can't hear me. I can't hear them."
Wayne Fiorenza owns a custom furniture shop a few hundred feet from the intersection.
“It kind of distracts you, especially if you're running a saw or something," he said. "You get distracted. You need to concentrate on what you're doing and all you can concentrate on is the horn."
DCTA officials said most intersections along the A-train route meet quiet zone requirements, so trains no longer have to sound their horns. But, at other intersections where guidelines were not met in Lewisville and Denton, wayside horns replaced actual train horns.
“Right now, without completely redesigning these intersections with major infrastructure and major financial investments in these intersections, the wayside horn is the safest measure to put into place at this time," said Dee Leggett, DCTA vice president of communications and planning.
WFAA used a decibel detection application when an A-train rolled by and it measured 89 decibels directly in front of Higginbotham’s shop. The merchant said if things don't improve, he may consider moving.
