Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 21
Silver Line Trains May Quiet Down Soon • New Republic Contract Includes Trash Cans • Trustees to Spend Lots of Time Together • Chick-fil-A Closes in Advance of Rebuild
This edition is loaded with restaurant news, but first I want to tell you about train horns, trash cans, and trustees’ tattoos.
Silver Line Trains May Quiet Down Soon
If everything goes according to plan, DART’s Silver Line trains may stop testing their horns in a matter of weeks.
I was among about a dozen people who showed up at DART’s community meeting in Cypress Waters on July 10. Coppell City Council Member Jim Walker was also there, and he asked this question: “When is the testing going to end, so the horn blowing will also end?”
DART spokesman Mario Zavala said quiet zones could be instituted by the end of this month. The transit agency is awaiting clearance from the Federal Railroad Administration, which has to check DART’s work on the vehicles, the tracks, the arms that block traffic at crossings, and the flashing lights at those crossings. As each of those components are tested, Zavala said, the horns must be used for safety’s sake.
“It’s not as simple as, ‘The train’s working, so we’re good,’” Zavala said.
DART officials gave a similar presentation to the Coppell Lions Club on June 16. I was not at that meeting, but Walker was, and he said the Lions and their guests were told federal officials had already conducted their inspections and that approval could be expected in a week or two.
Other attendees at the July 10 meeting asked why the testing is happening as early as 6 o’clock in the morning. Zavala said horns heard at that hour must be coming from freight trains, because DART and its contractors do not test anything before 8 a.m.
When revenue service on the Silver Line begins later this year, each of the crossings in Coppell — from Royal Lane on the west side of town to Fairway Drive on the east side — will be designated as quiet zones. That means the trains will not sound their horns unless an emergency requires them to do so. The establishment of those quiet zones was part of a deal in which DART acquired the land under Cypress Waters Station from the City of Coppell.
I’ve been writing about the Silver Line since the second edition of this newsletter. Click the button below to review previous articles on the topic.
New Republic Contract Includes Trash Cans
Under the terms of a deal approved by the City Council last week, every house in Coppell will get a new trash container.
Republic Services has been collecting garbage and recycling in Coppell for 11 years. The company’s contract with the city was set to end in October of 2026, but the council approved a five-year extension on July 8.