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There is one very interesting and essential thing that the train horn does for which there is no substitute.  It is a backup warning in case of signal failure-to-activate.  I notice that one requirement for a quiet zone is the installation of power-out indicators for approaching trains, but this cannot possibly be a guaranteed prevention of failure-to-activate.  Railroad authorities such as FRA, state DOTs, and OL will tell you that a failure-to-activate is impossible, which of course is not true.   <o:p></o:p> I suppose the power-out indicator would tell an engineer of an approaching train to blow the horn since the horn is authorized for emergencies, but still, there must be some margin of error in that manual response, and vehicle traffic pouring over a crossing that has failed to activate with an approaching train creates a very high probability of a collision because drivers let their guard down at signalized crossings.  They rely on the signals to protect them.   <o:p></o:p> It is possible for signals to fail to activate even though they have “fail-safe” circuitry.  Is it not possible for signals to fail to activate while the power-out indicator shows clear?  If it is, then the quiet zones pose a risk that does not exist with a horn zone.  If that is the case, I wonder why the FRA does not see it as a safety impediment to prevent quiet zones.  Maybe it is because they don’t want to advertise that signals can fail to activate.
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