# 2025-12157: Feds Let Trains Ditch the Horn at Passenger Stops

2025-12157, Enhancing Railroad Discretion in Sounding Locomotive Horns at Passenger Stations, is a Federal Register proposed rule from Transportation Department, Federal Railroad Administration published 2025-07-01 (as of 2026-06-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-12157
- As of: 2026-06-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2025-12157
- Title: Enhancing Railroad Discretion in Sounding Locomotive Horns at Passenger Stations
- Type: Proposed Rule
- Agencies: Transportation Department; Federal Railroad Administration
- Citation: 90 FR 28643
- Published: 2025-07-01
- Effective: unknown
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: no
- Regulation identifier numbers: 2130-AD18
- Last updated: 2026-06-11

## In one line

Feds Let Trains Ditch the Horn at Passenger Stops

## Summary

The FRA is giving railroads more freedom to decide when to sound their horns at passenger stations. Railroads can now set their own rules without having to follow strict federal horn-sounding requirements. This change helps railroads manage noise better and doesn’t add extra costs or deadlines right now.

## Abstract

FRA proposes to amend its safety standards related to the use of the locomotive horn to clarify that no Federal regulation requires a railroad to sound a locomotive horn because of the presence of a passenger station. The proposed rule would clarify that a railroad has discretion to determine policies for sounding a locomotive horn at a passenger station through railroad operating rules. The proposed rule would also provide that if a railroad decides to sound a locomotive horn at a passenger station, the minimum sound level requirements in FRA's Railroad Locomotive Safety Standards would not apply to the sound produced by the horn.

## Effects PRIA read

- Railroads Allowed to Set Horn Policies: benefit, low. The rule says no Federal regulation would require a railroad to sound a locomotive horn just because there is a passenger station. Railroads can decide their own policies for when to sound horns at passenger stations through their operating rules.
- Minimum Horn Sound Levels Would Not Apply: benefit, low. If a railroad decides to sound a horn at a passenger station, the proposed rule says the minimum sound level requirements in FRA's Railroad Locomotive Safety Standards would not apply to that horn sound. That means the FRA's minimum-volume rules would not govern the sound produced by horns at passe…
- No New Costs or Deadlines Now: benefit, low. The summary states this change does not add extra costs or deadlines at this time. That means railroads are not being required to make new expenditures or meet new compliance deadlines as part of this proposed rule now.

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## Sources
- [2025-12157 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/07/01/2025-12157/enhancing-railroad-discretion-in-sounding-locomotive-horns-at-passenger-stations)
- [2025-12157 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-07-01/pdf/2025-12157.pdf)

## Related
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- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-12157 (as of 2026-06-11).