If you live near Old Dixie Highway, you know the pattern by heart: two long blasts, one short, one long. Under the federal train horn rule, that sequence normally starts 15 to 20 seconds before a train reaches a public crossing. So why do you still hear it at Tequesta Drive more than a year after the horns went quiet in Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens?
Tequesta chose to wait before starting. And once the Tequesta Drive work is finished, the village will have a quiet zone at its own crossing and a working horn at the next crossing north, because that one belongs to a different county.
The Neighbors Finished in Summer 2025
Palm Beach Gardens reached quiet zone status at its six crossings in late July 2025. Stet News reported that the city spent more than two years and $125,000 meeting federal safety standards. Those crossings are Hood Road, Kyoto Gardens Drive, RCA Boulevard, Burns Road, Lighthouse Drive and Richard Road. Jupiter followed on Aug. 8, 2025, with all six of its crossings, according to the Palm Beach Post.
Horn noise picked up when Brightline's 30-trains-a-day schedule between West Palm Beach and Orlando reached the north end of the county in fall 2023. Stet describes the daily rhythm on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks this way: hourly Brightline passenger trains during the day, freight trains with loud horn blasts at night. Starting in 2023, the cities along the tracks pursued crossing safety upgrades with $3.5 million in federal money coordinated by the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency.
Tequesta has a single crossing on that line, at Tequesta Drive and Old Dixie Highway. That makes its project smaller on paper. It also started later, and that was the council's own choice.
How the Village Got Here
The timeline shows a village that held back first and then changed course.
- 2021. "Establish Safe and Quiet Railroad Crossing" goes into the village strategic plan. Village staff agree to hold off on a quiet zone application until Brightline has an established schedule.
- December 2023. The Palm Beach Post reported that the village decided not to apply at that point, despite a rush of noise complaints since Brightline arrived. CBS12 reported that the council cited safety and wanted to give seasonal residents time to adjust to the faster trains before revisiting the question in spring.
- March 2024. A staff memo brings the application back to the council for approval. It notes that the village had installed safety measures at the crossing several years earlier and that the FRA application itself costs nothing. By March 27, the Palm Beach Post reported that Tequesta, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens had all decided to apply.
- January 2025. WLRN reported that Tequesta was still upgrading the Tequesta Drive crossing before applying to the Federal Railroad Administration.
- September 2026. The village's September manager report says the FRA confirmed that several pavement markings at the crossing must be removed and moved before the quiet zone can begin.
Back in December 2023, Mayor Molly Young told WPBF that once the village applied, "the review time can take a couple of months from what we understand." Most of the time since then has gone into getting the crossing ready. The current hold-up is paint on the pavement.
Why Pavement Markings Can Hold Up the Whole Thing
A quiet zone takes away the horn, so the crossing has to make up for it in other ways. Federal rules require a community to reduce the extra risk before routine horns can stop. Stet lists the kinds of upgrades involved: gates that keep cars, pedestrians and bicyclists out of the crossing when a train is coming, plus signs, medians, pavement markings and lighting.
Markings in the wrong place are enough to keep the zone from opening. According to the September report, the village engineer has worked out the corrections, which mean milling, repaving and restriping several lanes at the crossing. The village's road contractor has that work planned for October and November. So for anyone driving Tequesta Drive this fall, lane work at the tracks is the last step before the horns can stop. The village has not announced a start date for the quiet zone. Until that work is done and the FRA signs off, there won't be one.
Tequesta Drive has a second project going at the same time. The same report says crews restoring the Tequesta Drive bridge had finished concrete spalling and paver walkway repairs. They were pressure washing and painting, with about 75 percent washed and 40 percent through its first coat of paint, and rain and king tides had pushed the schedule back about a week. If the road feels like one long work zone between Old Dixie and the river, that's because two village projects overlap there this season.
The Crossing Tequesta Can't Silence
The village is careful about what the quiet zone will and won't do. Its September report says horns will still sound when needed for safety or emergencies, and will keep sounding at the nearby County Line Road crossing, where no quiet zone has been set up. The federal rule says the same thing. A quiet zone ends routine horn use, but engineers can still sound the horn in emergencies or to warn people, vehicles or animals on the tracks.
County Line Road is outside the village's control. The 2024 staff memo names the two crossings on either side of Tequesta Drive and who is responsible for each. Here they are next to the village's own crossing, with where each one stands now:
| Crossing | Who decides | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Tequesta Drive | Village of Tequesta | Corrective markings planned for Oct–Nov 2026, then the quiet zone can be established |
| County Line Road | Martin County | Board rejected quiet zones in March 2025; split vote in May 2026 to take the issue up later |
| Riverside Drive | Town of Jupiter | Jupiter's crossings reached quiet zone status Aug. 8, 2025 |
In March 2025, WFLX reported that Martin County commissioners voted unanimously against quiet zones at all 27 of the county's railroad crossings, with county staff pointing to public safety risk. The question came back this spring. TCPalm reported that residents from Hobe Sound to Jensen Beach were pushing to silence the horns, and that on May 19 the commission split on a vote to take the issue up at a later date. "I would like it come sooner," Commissioner Stacey Hetherington said afterward. Nothing in that report gives a timeline for County Line Road.
On the Tequesta side, the work ahead is mostly paving and an FRA review. Whether trains also go quiet at County Line Road depends on a Martin County commission that has already said no once and hasn't scheduled its next look.
What to Expect This Fall
- On the road: milling, paving and restriping at the Tequesta Drive crossing, planned for October through November, alongside the bridge restoration to the east.
- At the crossing after it's approved: no routine four-part horn at Tequesta Drive, though engineers can still sound the horn for safety.
- To the north: County Line Road horns stay in place unless Martin County changes its position.
- Around the clock: the schedule doesn't change. Brightline still runs by day and freight trains run at night, so the quiet zone changes what you hear at the crossing, not how often trains come through.
The village posts its monthly manager report on tequesta.org, and the October edition should show whether the corrective work started on schedule. If you also cross into Jupiter often, our look at the year-long County Line Road bridge closure covers another change at the same county line. More village news is on our Tequesta neighborhood page.
If you live a few blocks from Old Dixie and wonder how a quieter Tequesta Drive fits into your home's story, we follow village projects like this one street by street. The Schilling Team can walk you through what has changed near your address, and you can start with an instant home valuation.
