Once Tequesta Drive Goes Quiet, the Train Horns Will Start at the County Line

Since last summer, the Florida East Coast corridor through north Palm Beach County has been quiet for most of its length. Routine horns stopped at six Palm Beach Gardens crossings in July 2025 and at six Jupiter crossings in August 2025. Tequesta Drive is the last crossing on the Palm Beach County side that still sounds them. It is next in line, and the repaving that should clear the way is planned for this fall. Even so, the end of horns at Tequesta Drive won't make the village's stretch of track silent. It moves the line where the noise begins a short way north, to County Line Road, where Martin County has chosen to keep the horns.

So how quiet any Tequesta street gets will depend less on the village's own crossing than on how close it sits to the one just over the county line.

The Corridor, Crossing by Crossing

Here is how the decisions stack up from south to north along the tracks, using the most recent public status for each.

Read from south to north, the table shows a quiet run through Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter, one crossing still pending in Tequesta, and horns continuing at every crossing in Martin County.

How the South End Went Quiet First

In March 2024, the Palm Beach Post reported that there were no quiet zones anywhere in northern Palm Beach County. Traffic on the tracks had jumped the previous September, when Brightline started running passenger service between Miami and Orlando. By that point, the Post reported, Brightline was running 32 trains a day on tracks it shares with Florida East Coast Railway freight, and some of those freight trains run more than a mile long.

Tequesta, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens all decided to apply that same month. The Post described residents telling their councils that horns were disrupting sleep and evenings outdoors. At the Tequesta Village Council meeting on March 14, 2024, one woman said she closed her hurricane shutters every night to block the sound.

Jupiter was further along on paper than either neighbor. According to the Post, it had applied for a quiet zone at the Riverside Drive crossing in December 2022, but that request was on hold until Brightline installed safety fencing along the tracks. WPBF reported a further federal pause in July 2024. Even so, Palm Beach Gardens' zone took effect on July 24, 2025, after the city was notified it met federal requirements, according to WPTV. Jupiter's followed on Aug. 8, 2025. In that WPTV report, a Jupiter resident said they heard Brightline and freight horns at least 30 times a day.

Why Tequesta Started Later

Tequesta's delay was deliberate. A March 14, 2024 staff memo from Village Manager Jeremy Allen notes that "Establish Safe and Quiet Railroad Crossing" had been in the village's strategic plan since 2021. Even so, the village held off on a quiet-zone application until Brightline had an established schedule. At a December 4, 2023 workshop, the council asked staff to bring the item back in March.

The memo also lays out what a quiet zone demands. Before a town can stop routine horns, it has to make up for the safety margin the horn provides. Tequesta had already added safety measures at the crossing years earlier because of its dual track, one of which carries high-speed rail. The memo says the federal application itself costs nothing, and that staff would turn to the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council or a consultant for help with the application and implementation.

The Palm Beach Post reported that the council had weighed the idea in December 2023 and viewed horns as necessary safety measures, and that resident comments helped bring it back for the March 14, 2024 vote. Jupiter's crossings have now been quiet for more than a year, and Tequesta Drive still is not.

What the FRA Flagged, and What This Fall's Work Fixes

The latest official update comes from the village manager's project dashboard, which reports status as of September 30, 2026 and was prepared for the October council meeting. The Federal Railroad Administration confirmed that several pavement markings already installed at the Tequesta Drive crossing have to be removed and relocated to meet quiet-zone requirements. The village's engineer has reviewed those findings, and the fix calls for milling, repaving and restriping several lanes at the crossing.

That work is planned for October–November 2026 with the village's road contractor, and the dashboard says it has to be finished before the quiet zone can be established. The report gives no target date for when the horns stop. If you drive Tequesta Drive over the next few weeks, expect lane work at the tracks.

A federal notice step also stands between the village and quiet nights. Under 49 CFR 222.43, a public authority creating a quiet zone has to send a Notice of Quiet Zone Establishment. The notice goes to the railroads that use the crossing, the highway and traffic authorities, and state safety agencies, and a copy is filed electronically with the FRA. The effective date in that notice can be no earlier than 21 days after it is mailed. Where a Notice of Intent was required first, the establishment notice generally cannot go out until 60 days after it, unless the specified comments or no-comment statements have come back sooner.

The village has not published its own timeline for the notice, so one plausible order of events, based on the dashboard and the federal rule, looks like this:

1. The contractor mills, repaves and restripes the Tequesta Drive crossing, planned for October–November 2026.
2. The corrections required by the FRA's findings are completed.
3. The village mails its notice of establishment, which names an effective date.
4. No sooner than 21 days after that mailing, routine horns stop at Tequesta Drive.

Even then, horns will not go away entirely. The village tells residents to expect "realistic limits on horn silence," and engineers can still sound them for safety or emergencies.

Why County Line Road Stays Loud

The same section of the dashboard says horns "will continue at the nearby County Line Road crossing, where a Quiet Zone has not been established." The 2024 memo lists that crossing as Martin County's.

Martin County's choice is the reason. In March 2025, after a year of study, county commissioners voted unanimously not to create quiet zones at any of the county's 27 railroad crossings, citing possible safety impacts, WPTV reported. Opponents also raised the cost of the recommended crossing improvements. Assistant County Engineer Matt Hammond said trains "will continue to routinely sound their horns, according to federal regulations, as they approach grade crossings or road crossings within Martin County." The same report noted that Brightline was paying for up to $1 million in additional safety fencing.

The question came back this year. TCPalm reported in May 2026 that residents from Hobe Sound to Jensen Beach were asking to have the horns silenced. On May 19, a split commission vote put the issue off to a later date, and Commissioner Stacey Hetherington said she wanted it taken up sooner. As of that report, it was unclear whether the county would act at all.

Until Martin County changes course, Tequesta will sit right at the edge of the horn zone. The streets nearest Tequesta Drive stand to gain the most from the village's work. Streets closer to County Line Road will keep hearing the crossing to the north.

The Other Roadwork on the Same Stretch

Tequesta Drive isn't the only change this season. The September dashboard reports that the Old Dixie Highway resurfacing is complete. Temporary pavement markings and flexible delineators went in at the Bridge Road intersection, which the village describes as a location with a history of serious crashes, and permanent striping was expected to follow. Citizen Portal's account of the September 10 council meeting describes Palm Beach County's proposal for Bridge Road and Village Boulevard as temporary turn-lane changes. They include converting Bridge Road access to right-in/right-out, and the results will be monitored before any permanent work.

On Tequesta Drive, the bridge restoration was still underway as of the same report. Spall and paver-walkway repairs were done, and the concrete pour was waiting for king tides to recede after weather had cost the project about a week. Taken together, the quiet-zone repaving, the bridge work and the Old Dixie changes put three projects on village roads this fall.

For a closer read of how the rail corridor and this fall's road projects affect a specific Tequesta street, The Jessica Gulick Group is happy to walk through it with you. Request a Private Consultation, and we will look at your address against the Tequesta Drive and County Line Road crossings.